Baldwin Tammy

of her daughter, who is a letter carrier in the Milwaukee metropolitan area O n September 29,
2020, about a month after postal police were instructed to stop patrols, a letter carrier in
Milwaukee was robbed at approximately 2:30 pm, a crime for which the U.S. Postal Inspection
Service is offering a reward of $ 2 With postal police officers sidelined, deterrents agains t
mail theft disappear and thieves seeking credit cards and personal identification information can
more easily obtain this information and also leave ballots behind.

This change troublingly bypasses congressional statute and intent. The 2006 Postal
Accountability and Enhancement Act ( provides that postal police officers shall have law
enforcement authority over postal “property Until August 25, 2020, USPS had continuously,
and correctly, interpreted “ to mean all forms of postal property And Congress used the
same word ——“ to give authority to USPS’ other law enforcement personnel Postal
Inspectors and these personnel are not restricted by the August 25 directive from conducting law
enforcement actions off of postal real estate. Since August 25, 2020, USPS has adopted a
cramped interpretation of “ in just one section, in order to remove postal police. This
inconsistent position is unsupportable.

Additionally, Congress was fully aware that postal police officers were already performing mail
security duties off postal real estate before the PAEA was even passed. Nothing in the
legislative history indicates any intent to reduce the availability of postal police officers in
performing their duties 3

The timing of the August 25 directive from USPS, which was authored by Deputy Chief
Inspector David Bowers raises even more questions. The directive was issued one day after
Postmaster General DeJoy testified before the House Oversight Committee Only one week prior
on August 18, 2020, days before Mr. DeJoy testified before the Senate Homeland Security and
Gove rnmental Affairs Committee, he announced a suspension of USPS changes “t o avoid even
the appearance of any impact on election mail.” 4

Please promptly answer t he following questions:

1. Did Postmaster General DeJoy or any members of the Postal Board of Governors have
   communication with the U.S Postal Inspection Service about this directive before it was
   presented to postal police officers on August 25, 2020?
   a. Did t he Postmaster General or members of the Board provide directions,
   instructions or give approval of this directive or view the directive before it was
   presented to postal poli ce officers on August 25, 2020?
   b. Was Postmaster General DeJoy aware of this forthcoming directive when he
   testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
   Committee on August 21, 2020 or the House Oversight Committee on August 24, 2020?
2. 2 https://www.cbs58.com/news/usps-letter-carrier-robbed-by-3-men-near-palmer-and-burleigh#:~:text=MILWAUKEE%20(CBS%2058)%20%E2%80%93%20The,Burleigh%20on%20Tuesday%2C%20September%2029.
   3 https://www.congress.gov/108/crpt/hrpt672/CRPT-108hrpt672-pt1.pdf
   4 https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2020/0818-postmaster-general-louis-dejoy-statement.htm

2. Please report the number of instances of mail theft and crimes against le tter carriers per
week for this calendar year in the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia,
Miami and Atlanta.

Mr. DeJoy has stated that the integrity of election mail is a priority for the Postal Service. I agree
that this should be a priority and in order to ensure the safety of our nation’s mail and letter
carriers, you must immediately reverse this decision.

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