Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020
Did the US Post Office cut law-enforcement efforts in recent months?
The U.S. Postal Service has its own law-enforcement staff, the Postal Inspection Service, whose powers and responsibilities date back to 1772 and are outlined in a federal code dedicated to the agency. On Aug. 25, the service "directed its police officers nationwide to end all mail-protection and other law-enforcement activity away from the confines of postal real estate," according to a lawsuit filed the same day by the Postal Police Officers Association.
The directive was one of several controversial moves by the service since the appointment of Louis DeJoy as Postmaster General.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Cornell: Legal powers of postal Inspectors
- Business Insider: USPS told its postal police officers to stand down
- The Hill: Postal service cuts are cutting into its law-enforcement mission
- Court Listener: Postal Police Officers Association v. USPS
- Homeland Security Digital Library: A law enforcement guide to the USPS
About fact briefs
Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
See all fact briefs
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
Learn MoreLatest Fact Briefs
Is there a scientific consensus that life begins at conception?
Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022
Do countries around the world subsidize fossil fuels?
Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022
Is the repeal of Roe v. Wade expected to increase the maternal death rate?
Wednesday, Jul. 27, 2022