[bigth]

I'm surprised by the comments here. People seem clueless to real threats the USPS faces and are puzzled why they have inspectors.

Last year or maybe it was 2019 a delivery worker was murdered. Agg robberies of delivery workers has been going up. Breaking into mail boxes and mail theft has been going up. Using mail service to conduct fraud and other criminal transactions is going up. I'm on mobile so it's hard to get the links but just google it, not hard to find.

[gnicholas]

I'm not surprised they have inspectors. I'm surprised they think that social media surveillance is within their purview.

I hope their inspectors continue to investigate mail theft, mail fraud, and other things related to the physical delivery of mail. But I don't want them shifting into digital snooping that is totally unrelated to mail.

[TedDoesntTalk]

> But I don't want them shifting into digital snooping that is totally unrelated to mail.

I mean, the primary method for delivery of goods purchased on the Silk Road was through the USPS. And I imagine the tor sites that replaced the Silk Road have similar delivery needs.

So if the USPS isn’t going to “digitally snoop” for the illegal delivery of handguns and heroin, who will?

[seany]

Delivering guns as data is a thing now, I'm sure someone is working on heroin.

[pixl97]

You do know mail fraud is commonly initiated by online groups, many times on social media, right?

[gnicholas]

> The work involves having analysts trawl through social media sites to look for what the document describes as “inflammatory” postings and then sharing that information across government agencies.

“Analysts with the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) monitored significant activity regarding planned protests occurring internationally and domestically on March 20, 2021,” says the March 16 government bulletin

Sounds like they're focused on issues other than mail fraud.

[bigth]

Not true at all, any gathering of people is a prime target for shipping contraband in the mail. Not to mention how the protests could affect mail service in the area.

[TechBro8615]

If that's the case, surely it would be more appropriate for a law enforcement agency such as the FBI to investigate any crimes committed against postal workers. But we aren't even talking about crimes that were committed here – we're talking about crimes that might be committed.

[bigth]

The postal inspection service is a law enforcement agency...? And it existed before the FBI. Moreover, all federal law enforcement trains at the same place in Georgia.

Look: https://www.uspis.gov

Matter of fact their website news section shows you some of the crazy crime they investigate. Theft of postal vehicle happened few days ago apparently.