It’s bad enough when mail comes late, and the U.S. Postal Service doesn’t seem to care. Alarmingly, Americans’ checks, medications and sensitive information are ending up in the hands of criminal postal workers.

According to recent reporting by the USPS inspector general, criminal gangs are “targeting, recruiting, and colluding with postal employees to move narcotics through the postal network and to steal checks — both personal and government-issued checks — credit cards, and other valuables from the mail.” Postal workers in Virginia and North Carolina have been charged with stealing more than $1 million worth of checks, while mail clerks have been nabbed searching greeting cards for gift cards. The USPS must do a far better job of keeping Americans’ mail safe and out of the clutches of criminals.

The USPS’ latest string of worker robberies is not an isolated incident at the agency. Over the fiscal year 2020 to 2023 period, the agency investigated and closed about 1,500 internal mail theft cases annually. Trying to pin down the root cause of these thefts has proven difficult.

Judging by the IG’s previous reporting, it’s natural to assume that the agency isn’t doing its due diligence with hiring. In 2019, the watchdog took the USPS to task for failing to provide proper documentation on employees “who were hired with a criminal hit on their pre-screening background check and … not conduct[ing] [National Agency Check with Inquiries] background investigations for all newly hired employees.” While the USPS has gotten more careful with screening its employees over time, that has not decreased mail worker theft. In 2023, the IG took another look at the USPS’ background check process and found proper and completed background checks for 99% of employees. The agency took its watchdog’s advice for once, but sadly, internal theft cases spiked about 50% even as the USPS tightened the screws on hiring.

Other agency lapses may be partially to blame for rampant opportunistic crimes. For example, one common theme in cases examined by the IG is criminals using personal belongings such as jackets and backpacks to quickly divert and hide mail while on the job. While the USPS still has its analytics team to surveil social media, they aren’t keeping tabs on their own employees. The USPS is letting its surveillance cameras fall into disrepair, but, in typical secretive fashion, refuses to share how many cameras are non-functional.

Most alarmingly, the Postal Police force remains benched. During a May 2023 House Oversight and Accountability subcommittee hearing, Rep. Jamie Raskin asked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy whether the USPS has “continued to prevent Postal Police Officers from doing their jobs … by traveling to wherever the problem is taking place?” DeJoy responded that he doesn’t have the authority to deploy the 700-strong police force outside of postal facilities because of laws on the books. The relevant legal language states that the USPS “may employ police officers for duty in connection with the protection of property owned or occupied by the Postal Service or under the charge and control of the Postal Service, and persons on that property, including duty in areas outside the property to the extent necessary to protect the property and persons on the property.”

The postmaster general overlooks the language addressing property “under the charge and control” of the USPS. Because the USPS claims a monopoly on what goes inside mailboxes, it’s reasonable to infer that the agency effectively controls that property even though it doesn’t outright own mailboxes.

So, while the Postal Police can prevent mail thefts in and around postal facilities, criminals — from within and outside the organization — can operate with impunity off-campus. That’s a gaping hole in enforcement that needs fixing right away.

The USPS can stop thieves in their tracks, but only with a smart and targeted combination of law enforcement, surveillance and personnel policies. Consumers shouldn’t have to accept their paychecks, holiday cards and medications being stolen by crooked clerks and carriers.

David Williams is the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.