Postal workers are calling for change and new protections following an increase in postal robberies and violence.
Over the last year, at least eight postal workers in Oklahoma have been assaulted while doing their jobs.
Mail carriers gathered at the Oklahoma state Capitol in February to demand better protections and prosecution against attackers on the job.
Ken Mayfield, president of the National Association of Letter Carriers Oklahoma City Branch 458, said that over the past year, several robberies have occurred in the metro area and at least four crimes in other parts of the state.
Oklahoma is part of a larger trend across the country. There have been more than 2,000 instances of U.S. letter carriers being victims of violent crimes in the past four years.
In March, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Greg Landsman (D-OH) introduced H.R. 7629. The bill would allocate $7 billion in funding for the Postal Service to secure its infrastructure and improve safety. Additionally, the legislation would mandate an assistant U.S. attorney in each judicial district to prioritize any case involving a crime against a letter carrier and strengthen sentencing guidelines for these crimes.
Last year, USPS launched an initiative called Project Safe Delivery to reduce crime against postal employees. They swapped out blue boxes with ones with higher security and replaced arrow locks—universal keys that can open many kinds of mailboxes—with electronic versions to be less attractive to criminals. The effort came after The Associated Press reported nearly 500 mail carriers were robbed in 2022.
Mayfield said, despite these initiatives, postal workers are still the victims of violence.
“We actually just had a robbery about two or three weeks ago in Ardmore of a letter carrier, so they're still continuing,” Mayfield said.
Mayfield encouraged Oklahomans to call their representatives and advocate for their mail carriers, who are an integral part of communities.
“Your letter carriers are in your neighborhood every day of the week,” Mayfield said. “We watch out for customers who are hurt, we call the fire department if we notice somebody's house is on fire and nobody's home. We watch out for our customers, and we’d just like for them to watch out for us, please.”
