Manon Wojack has been a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service for more than 23 years, delivering everything from bills to paychecks to packages to residents along her north Minneapolis route.
Wojack, 49, has more than 600 deliveries on her normal route, but she would regularly pick up extra shifts. However, an increase in violent attacks on mail carriers in recent years — including an incident last month at her own station where someone pulled a gun on one of her colleagues — prompted Wojack and others to avoid working nights for their own safety.
“I used to always be on the overtime list,” she said. “But now, as things have been happening, I don’t really care to be out in the dark.”
Dozens of letter carriers rallied earlier this month to bring awareness to the rise in robberies and physical assaults. They’re also calling on the USPS to implement more measures to keep mail carriers safe as they do their jobs, and for law enforcement and prosecutors to do more to apprehend and litigate cases against attackers.
Increase in attacks
According to the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC), attacks on mail carriers have risen sharply in recent years, prompting the organization to start keeping a record of the incidents. Since 2020, there have been more than 2,000 violent attacks, most of which involved a gun or other weapon.
In two recent incidents this past November, a 26-year-old man held an Edina mail carrier at gunpoint demanding mailbox keys for an apartment complex. The same man then pulled his handgun on a mail carrier in Brooklyn Center the following day, making the same demand for mailbox keys. The man, identified as Rubin Adams of St. Paul, was charged by federal prosecutors last week with two counts of assault and attempted robbery with the use of a deadly weapon.
“This is part of an alarming trend that law enforcement is seeing around the country, including here in the Twin Cities,” said U.S. Attorney Andy Luger in a press release. “We take this issue very seriously and will continue to ensure postal employees are safe and free from violence as they serve their communities.”
The most horrific of recent attacks occurred in Milwaukee in December 2022 when two men shot and killed on-duty mail carrier Aundre Cross, an 18-year USPS employee and father of three.
The rise in robberies and attacks has coincided with an increase in the number of packages mail carriers deliver during their routes. That number then skyrocketed amid the pandemic as people did more online ordering while stuck at home.
Patrick Johnson, the NALC’s national business agent who oversees the region that includes Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas, said the attacks have had a major impact physically on those who have been attacked, of course, but also mentally on victims and their colleagues wondering if they’ll be next.
“It’s hard for you to get back out there on your route without looking over your shoulder, constantly thinking that something’s gonna happen or somebody’s gonna run up on you,” he said. “It has a major effect on the workforce as far as mentally and physically.”
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Mohamed Ibrahim[/image_credit][image_caption]The rise in robberies and attacks has coincided with an increase in the number of packages mail carriers deliver during their routes.[/image_caption]Calls for more help
One of the first things the Postal Service has been trying to do, Johnson said, is increase staffing to prevent carriers from working longer hours and delivering mail in the dark.
The number of employees has been gradually decreasing since 1999, according to USPS records, going from nearly 800,000 nationwide in 1999 to just under 500,000 in 2020. Recent boosts in hiring, including at Wojack’s station, has brought that number up to more than 516,000 in 2022.
“We’ve got more employees now, which definitely helps with morale,” she said. “And it actually makes those that may feel a little more unsafe to come in and do the job on a regular basis.”Other protections mail carriers are calling for include cameras on delivery vehicles, and changes to how mail and packages are delivered to apartment buildings.
Normally, carriers use what is called an “arrow key” to access the multiple mailboxes within the apartment buildings along their routes. In addition to checks and packages, robbers target carriers for these keys to gain access to the mailboxes in these buildings.
Johnson said the Postal Service is looking into ways to devalue that type of key, including using an electronic key that would be activated via a code at the Post Office each day.
In addition to the safety measures, Johnson said he’s also calling on federal prosecutors to more robustly go after offenders. Just 14% of attacks lead to an arrest, and even fewer attacks lead to convictions, he said.
Lastly, Johnson emphasized the reliance on residents receiving mail and packages to help keep mail carriers safe, urging community members to report suspicious activity. He said the prevalence of doorbell cameras is a huge help, pointing to the footage that was used to help catch the alleged killers in the Milwaukee case.
“We ask the community to keep an eye out and alert authorities if they see anything suspicious, if they witness a crime and to preserve the evidence,” he said. “They were able to catch the three perpetrators because they had three or four different angles of doorbell cams that caught the car, the perpetrator and saw which direction he went.”
