July 23, 2025

NALC President Brian L. Renfroe testifies before Congress on urgent need to protect letter carriers from crime

Today, NALC President Brian L. Renfroe testified before the House Subcommittee on Government Operations at a hearing on mail theft and crime.

In his opening remarks, President Renfroe set the tone with a clear message. “To protect America’s mail, we must start with protecting the people who deliver it,” he said.

While once rare, Renfroe explained that these crimes and assaults have been on the rise in recent years. He urged Congress to pass the bipartisan Protect Our Letter Carriers Act (H.R. 1065/S. 463), referencing the five letter carriers who have been tragically murdered on the job in the last few years, the thousands of other letter carriers who have been victims of crime, and the alarmingly low conviction rates for these cases. 

Regarding the Postal Service’s Project Safe Delivery plan, Renfroe said NALC supported the initiative and the work of the Postal Inspection Service, but that “the scope of the problem has severely outgrown their capacity to protect us.”

“We can’t wait for another letter carrier to be murdered or more violent federal crimes against civil servants who serve the American people every day to decide it’s finally time for legislative action. The time is now,” he said.

Renfroe reminded the subcommittee that this is “not a partisan or political issue” or “a finger pointing exercise or blame game.” 

“It is a problem that everyone should recognize and be 100 percent behind addressing. No one wants violent crime in their neighborhood,” he added.

Renfroe emphasized that protecting letter carriers must be a top priority. “Letter carriers want nothing more than to serve our people, but we must be protected. And the people that commit these crimes must be arrested, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced.”

The subcommittee also included witnesses Brendan Donahue, Inspector in Charge at the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; Julius Rothstein, Deputy Inspector General at the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General; Frank Albergo, President of the Postal Police Officers Association; and Anthony Holloway, Chief of Police at the St. Petersburg, Florida Police Department.

Overall, questions focused on types of mail theft, what is driving an increase in these crimes, the role of postal police officers, Project Safe Delivery, and what more can be done to protect mail and postal employees.

In his opening remarks, Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) recognized that criminals have increasingly targeted letter carriers, referencing an 845 percent increase in letter carrier robberies from 2019 to 2023.

In his questioning, Ranking Member Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) emphasized that mail theft is about more than data. “It’s also about human beings who are on the other side of the equation. We refer to them as letter carriers. They work day in and day out to make sure that the service that we’ve come to take for granted is still there,” he said.

Ranking Member Mfume then asked Renfroe how the current postal lock and key system works. Renfroe explained the issues with the current method, referenced the Postal Service’s modernization efforts, and explained that passing the bipartisan Protect Our Letter Carriers Act is the most efficient way to modernize all postal locks and keys.

President Renfroe’s full testimony is available here.