Leaders from Sacramento convened beside a mailbox in North Natomas on Friday morning to address the extensive problems related to how the U.S. Postal Service monitors and protects mailboxes.
"This has reached truly epidemic levels over the past few years," stated Representative Ami Bera, D-Sacramento, during the press conference.
Friday’s press conference follows the inspection conducted last month by the Office of Inspector General Regarding the shortcomings identified at three post offices in Sacramento County—the Sacramento Main Post Office, the Fort Sutter Station, and the Ranho Cordova Post Office—auditors reported that these facilities handled over three billion items of mail during the fiscal year 2024.
The audit discovered that there were widespread issues such as absent and untracked arrow keys along with insufficient supervision in the area.
The arrow keys serve as standard tools utilized by the USPS for accessing mail collection boxes, external package lockers, and group mailbox systems. Postal workers rely on these keys daily for their distribution tasks; however, they are frequently pilfered by criminals who then employ them to unlock mailboxes.
The audit revealed insufficient accountability for these keys. In October 2024, only 12% of the arrow keys were scanned at Sacramento’s Main Post Office. Across the three post offices examined, a total of 153 arrow keys were either unaccounted for or couldn’t be confirmed as present.
We cannot tackle this issue unless our postal service starts monitoring those keys," stated Lisa Kaplan, a council member from Sacramento representing North Natomas. "If these keys allow anyone unrestricted access, then suddenly we won’t be concerned with vandalized mailboxes anymore since people could simply come in daily and take the mail.
On Friday, Bera stated that he will keep advocating for the updating of mailboxes and ensuring the accountability of the postal inspector generals.
After hearing complaints from "numerous residents," Bera called for a USPS audit. He intends to distribute the findings to the 51 other California representatives in Congress.
If it's not just one member of Congress, but 52 of us from California—Democrats and Republicans alike," Bera stated. "Collectively, we will have a stronger voice. That's what we'll do next. This isn’t something special to our situation.
Community members are advised to collect their mail every day, avoid using outgoing mailboxes, and notify both the Sacramento Police and the USPS about instances of mail theft.
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