Congress is taking action to protect letter carriers and your money and identity.
A new bill announced Wednesday in Washington aims to cut down on a problem that the I-Team’s John Bedell has been reporting on for more than a year.
Letter carriers are being violently attacked for their arrow keys, which are master keys that unlock big blue drop boxes and other bulk mailboxes. It gives criminals access to hundreds of pieces of mail at once, so they can pull off identity theft on a massive scale.
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Nearly 18 months into an I-Team investigation, News Center 7 is still hearing from people adjusting to their mailing habits.
Criminals are attacking US Postal letter carriers, many times even robbing them at gunpoint for their arrow keys.
“Our letter carriers, our postal workers are such a huge part of our lives,” said southwest Ohio Congressman Greg Landsman.
Landsman is one of the lawmakers behind a new bi-partisan bill aimed at cutting down on violent crimes against postal employees and the identity theft and fraud that can follow.
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“And so the least we can do is that every single postal worker and letter carrier safe. And this is what this bill does,” Landsman said.
The new legislative plan would set aside $1.4 billion for each of fiscal years 2025 through ‘29 for the postal service to install high-security collection boxes, which are harder for criminals to break into, and replace outdated arrow keys with electronic versions.
The bill would also require all US attorneys to dedicate one federal prosecutor in their office to handle postal crime and it would change federal criminal sentencing guidelines to treat the assault or robbery of a postal employee the same as the assault of a law enforcement officer.
“This is a no-brainer. I can’t imagine anybody being opposed to it. Which means I fully expect this to come on the floor this year and pass with overwhelming support,” said Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick.
News Center 7 previously reported on the postal service making those high-security drop box and arrow key changes.
Congressman Landsman’s office told News Center 7 that the bill would represent a new and dedicated source of revenue to help the postal service continue and expand the work of installing new high-security drop boxes and replacing arrow keys with electronic versions.
We will continue providing updates.
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