Topic: criminology
The US Postal Inspection Services
The United States Postal inspection Service (USPIS) is an arm of the United States postal Service, and is the law enforcement arm of the latter. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service boosts if having the oldest origins of any Federal law enforcement agency in the country, having started somwhere in 1772 when the colonial Postmaster General Benjamin appointed a surveyor in charge of regulating and auditing mails (Maguire, 1995). The U.S. Postal Inspection Service has an array of responsibilities and jurisdictions. It primarily an investigative agency which uses the services of plain-clothes federal criminal investigators called the “postal investigators”. The mission of the agency is “to support and protect the U.S. Postal Service and its employees, infrastructure, and customers,; enforcing the laws that defend the nation’s mail system from illegal or dangerous use; and ensuring public trust in the mail” (United States Postal Inspection Service, 2011).
The Chief Security Officer of the U.S. Postal Service is also the Chief Postal Inspector of the USPIS. The officer is responsible for issuing instructions and regulations pertaining to security requirements. Postal Inspectors as law enforcement officers with the primary role of investigating criminal, civic, as as administrative violations of the U.S. postal laws and regulations. They gather accurate information linking suspects to their accused crimes through collection of physical evidence, interrogation of suspects, interview of victims and witnesses. The postal inspectors are licensed to carry firearm as the authority to serve warrants and subpoenas. They also collaborate with the local, state and federal law enforcement officers to investigate crime in U.S. Mail or U.S. Postal Service (Maguire, 1995).
The general responsibilities of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are to review the programs and projects of the agency. These include Financial audits as well as program evaluations. The agency also serves to safeguard the U.S. Postal Service assets which include investigative worker compensation claims together with employee embezzlement (United State et al, 1992). Furthermore, the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Postal Service acts to protect the work environment of its postal employees. It does this through such actions as conducting investigations into threats and assaults mounted against postal employees while in their day to day operations. Similarly, it ensures that the conduct of its staff is beyond reproach as errand employees would be disposed off their duties when found to engage in the usage or dealing of narcotics and drugs on postal property, for instance. Presently, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is responsible for enforcement of more than 200 federal postal laws of the United States (United States Postal Inspection Service, 2011).
The United States Postal Inspections Service has a variety of investigative teams and functions. These are:
1. Fraud Investigations: Deals with crimes that make use of the mails in facilitating fraud against customers, government, as well as businesses. Several federal statutes are available for the USPIS to tackle this crime and include mail fraud (which prosecutes most white collar crimes), bank fraud, credit card fraud, identity theft, Internet or computer fraud, and wire fraud.
2. Revenue Investigations: The USPIS investigates cases concerning fraudulent practices by businesses as well as consumers mailing items without the proper or using counterfeit postage. This also involves indicia or crimes that lead to defrauding of the revenue of the USPS.
3. External Crime and Violent Crime Teams – External crimes refer to crimes committed by groups or individuals from without the organization. As such the USPIS undertakes the External Crimes Function of investigating theft of any US mail by non-employees. It also investigates assaults of on-duty postal employees as well as theft and robberies of property belonging to the postal service. Further investigations are done on robberies of postal facilities and personnel, burglaries, and murders of postal staff. This is a function of the USPIS that strives to ensure that the sanctity and trust in the U.S. Mail system is not compromised.
4. International Investigations and Global Security – This is an investigative function of the USPIS that sees to it that international mail is secured, international business decisions as well as campaigns remain safe and secure. As such the USPIS has established investigators both within the U.S. and around the world to ensure intelligence, protection, and liaison.
5. Joint Task Force Investigations – The USPIS takes part in joint task force investigations that relate to mail service which involve all law enforcement agency of the Federal Government. For example, participation in the infamous Omniplan case.
Furthermore, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has a major crime laboratory with forensic scientists. The scientists carry out examination of physical and digital evidence that pertain to criminality in the postal service. They also employ the services of computer forensics using a variety of satelites stationed across the country. Further investigative support comes from the Postal Inspection Services Division (TSD) (Maguire, 1995). . This uses new technology and the operations of a couple of national communication centers (the National Law Enforcement Control Centers -NLECC). In the FY 2010, the Postal Inspection Service managed to undertake a 46 percent of arrests relating to mail theft which was a total of 2,775 suspetcs, and 1,000 mail fraud suspects.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service also undertakes civil education programs to educate customers about fraudulent activities. For instance, recently the agency mailed a brochure to nearly all homes in America teaching people on how to recognize warning signs of fraud so they can effectively avoid becoming victims. In addition, the Postal Inspection Service personnel also issue news releases addressing investigations together with events of national interest.
Presently, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service maintains a federally accredited law enforcement academy in Potomac Maryland called the Career Development Unit (CDU) (United States Postal Inspection Service, 2011).
In summary, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service boosts of a long, proud and successful history of countering postal criminals. It is an overly specialized, and professional agency that investigates and secure mails and mail services of the country. American businesses are assured of safe dispatch of their funds, information, and securities through the U.S. Mail. As such the primary responsibility of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service is to safeguard each and every element of the all important U.S. Postal System. The significance and essence of this agency to the country cannot therefore be underestimated as it serves to protect tons of postal activities together with millions of dollars in form of postal assets including equipment, products, vehicles, and revenue (United States Postal Inspection Service, 2011).
Information pertaining to mailing addresses, and telephone numbers, as well as fax numbers of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service offices all the nation is readily available on the U.S. Inspection Service home page found on the World Wide Web at https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/.
References:
Maguire, Kathleen. (1996). Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1995. Pennsylvania, DIANE Publishing.
United State, General Accounting Office, & Office of Special Investigations. (1992). Investigators’ guide to sources of information. Pennsylvania, DIANE Publishing.
United States Postal Inspection Service. (2011). U.S. Postal Inspection Service ANNUAL REPORT> FY 2010. Retrieved on February 20th, 2012 from https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/.
