| United States Postal Inspection Service | |
| Common name | Postal Inspection Service |
| Abbreviation | USPIS |
| Patch of the United States Postal Inspection Service. | |
| Badge of the United States Postal Inspection Service. | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1772 (surveyors) 1802 (special agents) 1830 (agency) |
| Employees | 3,500 (approx) |
| Legal personality | Governmental: Government agency |
| Jurisdictional structure | |
| Federal agency | United States |
| General nature |
|
| Specialist jurisdiction | Property, personnel, and-or postal items of a postal service. |
| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters | 475 L'Enfant Plaza SW, Washington, D.C |
| Postal Inspectors | 1,200 (approx) |
| Agency executive | Guy Cottrell, Chief Postal Inspector |
| Parent agency | United States Postal Service |
| Website | |
| http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov | |
The United States Postal Inspection Service (or USPIS) is the law enforcement arm of the United States Postal Service. Its jurisdiction is defined as "crimes that may adversely affect or fraudulently use the U.S. Mail, the postal system or postal employees."
An agency with approximately 4,000 employees, 1,200 criminal investigators, an armed uniformed division with 1,000 personnel, forensic laboratories and a communications system, and with 1,000 technical and administrative support personnel, the USPIS leads and assists in numerous joint federal and state investigations.
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The Postal Inspection Service has the oldest origins of any federal law enforcement agency in the United States. It traces its roots back to 1772,[1] when colonial Postmaster General Benjamin Franklin first appointed a "surveyor" to regulate and audit the mails. Thus, the Service's origins—in part—predate the Declaration of Independence, and therefore the United States itself. As Franklin was Postmaster under the Continental Congress and was George Washington's first Postmaster, his system continued.
In 1801, the title of "surveyor" was changed to Special Agent. In 1830, the Special Agents were organized into the Office of Instructions and Mail Depredations. The Postal Inspection Service was the first federal law enforcement agency to use the title Special Agent for its officers. Congress changed this title to Inspector in 1880.
For some time, one of their primary duties was the enforcement of obscenity prohibitions under the Comstock Act.
USPIS was at one time the only investigative agency of the Postal Service; however, many of its internal oversight duties were transferred to the USPS Office of Inspector General. These duties tended to be in the internal fraud, waste and abuse categories.
The OIG primarily took over the Postal Inspection Service's audit function, as well as fraud (against the USPS) waste and abuse.
The USPIS is primarily an investigative agency employing plain-clothes federal criminal investigators entitled "Postal Inspectors" whose primary mission is "to protect the U.S. Postal Service, its employees and its customers from criminal attack, and protect the nation's mail system from criminal misuse". It has responsibility for over 700,000 Postal Service employees and billions of pieces of mail transported through air, land, rail and sea world wide a year.
Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, the USPIS has also investigated several cases where ricin, anthrax and other toxic substances were sent through the mail. Although the USPIS has a wide jurisdiction, USPIS investigations can be categorized into these seven types of investigative teams and functions:
The Postal Inspection Service operates one main forensic crime laboratory that is staffed by forensic scientists whose expertise includes the examination of physical and digital evidence. The crime laboratory also has several satellite offices across the country whose primary mission is computer forensics. The Postal Inspection Service's Technical Services Division (TSD) provides investigative support through the use of new technology and the operations of two national communication centers known as the National Law Enforcement Control Centers or the "NLECC". [In 2003 Immigration and Customs Enforcement renamed their national communication center, previously known as "Sector" to the "National Law Enforcement COMMUNICATIONS Center" also known as "NLECC", USPIS NLECC and ICE NLECC are two independent federal law enforcement radio communications centers but coincidentally share the same acronym and an almost identical name.
The National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., exhibits "U.S. Postal Inspectors: The Silent Service" until February 28, 2010.[4]
With the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 (effective 1971), a uniformed police force was added to patrol in and around selected high-risk postal facilities in major metropolitan areas in the United States and its territories. These uniformed officers provide a visible deterrent at postal facilities located primarily in urban high-crime areas and respond to emergencies including disturbances, assaults, theft, robberies and other incidents threatening the safety of postal employees and customers. They make arrests for crimes committed against the United States Postal Service and felonies committed in their presence. These employees are required to qualify with agency-issued shotguns and their assigned sidearms and are designated as police officers under Title 18, Part 2, Section 3061(c)
U.S. POSTAL POLICE OFFICERS
As Enacted by the US Congress Title 18 United States Code Section 3061
The Postal Inspection Service maintains a law enforcement academy (the Career Development Unit (CDU)) based in Potomac, Maryland. It is a federally accredited law enforcement academy, however not recognized by some other federal agency employers as such.
The following list shows US Postal Inspectors and Postal Police Officers who have died in the line of duty. Their names have been etched on the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial wall and to a Postal Inspection Service plaque at the agency's national headquarters, both located in Washington, DC.
Charles Fitzgerald, Post Office Inspector, Clinton, MS, Date of Death: 09/23/1909, Panel 34, E-2
Elbert P. Lamberth, Post Office Inspector, Stantoville, TN, Date of Death: 08/17/1917, Panel 57, E-23
George W. Daniel, Postal Inspector in Charge, Washington, DC, Date of Death: 09/01/1919, Panel 27, W-26
Levi C. Chance, Post Office Inspector, Savannah, GA, Date of Death: 02/14/1923, Panel 20, W-25
Walter R. Ton, Post Office Inspector, Bozeman, MT, Date of Death: 01/10/1938, Panel, 20, W-25
Finton T, McMahon, Post Office Inspector, Washington, DC, Date of Death, 08/01/1939, Panel 52, W-26
Ernest M. Harkins, Post Office Inspector, Oklahoma City, OK, Date of Death: 01/12/1949, Panel 16, E-6
Bruce O. Shaffer, Post Office Inspector, Poplar Bluff, MO, Date of Death: 08/31/1951, Panel 16, E-6
John P. McAuliffe, Investigative Aide, Chicago, IL, Date of Death: 03/14/1960, Panel 2, W-11
Benedetto M. Spizzirri, Investigative Aide, Chicago, IL, Date of Death: 03/14/1960, Panel 58, E-9
Michael J. Healy, Postal Police Officer, Chicago, IL, Date of Death: 06/21/1981, Panel 64, E-2
Terrance M. Asbury, Postal Inspector, Los Angeles, CA, Date of Death: 02/13/1990, Panel 54, E-17
Robert F. Jones, Postal Inspector, Washington, DC, Date of Death: 07/14/2000, Panel 36, W-22
In 2006 the Postal Inspection Service created the "2 SMRT 4U" campaign aimed at teenage girls, the group most targeted by online sexual predators. It established the website to educate teens about how to chat and post wisely online.[5] For its dedication to protecting children and fighting child exploitation, the United States Department of Justice honored the Postal Inspection Service with its Internet Safety Award.