Mail carriers in North Texas are fed up.
On Thursday, the National Association of Letter Carriers – the labor union representing United States postal workers — is organizing a rally to raise attention to assaults and robberies of letter carriers on delivery routes in recent months.
Members plan to gather outside of the main post office location on I-30 in West Dallas at 4 p.m. for one of several rallies that have been taking place across the country in recent weeks.
Federal authorities have been investigating a string of armed robberies in DFW, that have left mail carriers on edge and fearing for their safety.
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"We've had at least eight armed robberies within the last few months. And in my career, we may have had eight robberies in 36 years,” said Kim Lewis, NALC Branch 132 president, which represents USPS letter carriers in the East Texas and Dallas area.
Lewis said the robbers seem to be targeting checks and they think economic struggles since the pandemic might have something to do with it.
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"Everybody's life changed. And there may be people out there that's unemployed and they're just seeking to gain anything, any kind of way because of that,” she said. “It's just the mindset – no one seems to care about anyone but themselves and what their needs are. They're not concerned that a letter carrier has a family. They're not concerned that they're trying to earn a living.”
Robbery of on-duty postal employees is on the rise across the nation, according to statistics provided by the inspector’s office.
The number of cases reported in 2022 was 423, exponentially higher than the 94 robberies reported in 2019. A fraction of these federal crimes result in arrests and convictions, according to the data. Convictions can carry up to ten years in federal prison.
“Now it's a fear. Now you're afraid. Now you're scared and you don't know who you can talk to,” Lewis said of the experience local letter carriers have shared with her recently. “If someone came up on you or was trying to ask you for directions, now you'll be afraid to give it to them because you don't know what their intent is. So all of these robberies have caused a big change in the way a letter carrier performs their duties."
The labor union said they want the U.S. postal service to do more to protect employees and for federal prosecutors and the public to do more to help bring these crimes to justice.
“The United States Postal Service needs to protect its employees here and around the country, and federal prosecutors — who have penalties not available to local district attorneys — need to prosecute these crimes against federal workers to the full extent of the law,” the NALC said in a statement.
NBC 5 reached out to the local U.S. Postal Inspector, Sean Smith, who said the USPS is recognizing the concerns of employees.
“Incidents, like those described, are exactly why the United States Postal Service along with the United States Postal Inspection Service, launched the Project Safe Delivery initiative in May 2023,” he said in an email.
In the expanded Project Safe Delivery initiative, over 10,000 blue collection boxes have been replaced with new high-security blue collection boxes. The Postal Inspection Service said it has sought to enforce the laws that protect the Postal Service and has also conducted a variety of outreach activities seeking to prevent incidents involving USPS employees.
Click here to read more about the initiative.
If you have any information about any of the recent robberies in Dallas, you are urged to contact the: U.S. Postal Inspection Service at 1-877-876-2455 (say “Law Enforcement”).
Despite the fear, Lewis said letter carriers are continuing their duties out of respect and love for their line of work.
"Despite all the bad, we're still going to go out there every day. You're going to get your mail. We're going to do everything to make sure that the mail process continues despite all the ugly things that have been happening to us,” she said. “So we want people to recognize that and give us a little bit of credit for persevering. Persevering in a time when some people may just lay down and give up.”
