I’ve always been curious about this. The Post Office is required to deliver postal mail to any and all addresses in the United States. But then how does the Post Office deal with situations that require postal mail to be delivered to high-crime areas (which might put postal workers in extreme danger)? Is the Post Office not required to deliver mail in these situations? Is there hazard pay for postal employees who work in these high-crime areas?
That’s an interesting question. I know that a local newspaper had stopped delivering to a certain crime-ridden area here. Wonder if the post office did too?
After trekking half-way through hell I found their FAQ. RE anthraxat least,
didnt see anything else related
“High crime rate” is a relative term. There’s no area in the United States where society has completely broken down. In the worst neighborhoods in our nation, you’ll still find plenty of regular people living. And they get mail.
I would imagine that even the baddest, toughest neighborhood gangsta knows that messing with a federal employee is a federal offense. That means federal time (generally pretty rough) and virtually limitless resources to investigate, prosecute, and protect (e.g. FBI, U.S. Marshalls, U.S. Army). They can’t win and they know it.
Postal workers are notorious for being ill-paid and well-armed, why would anyone see value in trying to rob them? 
I remember a campaign a couple of years ago where USPS trucks would honk their horns repeatedly in certain neighborhoods on the days that most government assistance checks (Social Security, welfare, etc.) would be delivered. On those days, thieves would stake out the trucks and try to steal the checks, which could be illegally cashed and such.
I don’t know if this issue is still a big deal, but I would think any letter carrier’s bag, which can contain a lot of info that can be used for identity theft would be a prime target for various ne’er do wells.
What? Are postpersons allowed to carry hand-guns?
Or are you saying they carry anyway? As far as being notorious for it, I’ve certainly never heard of it.
Have you never heard of the term “going postal”? A while back there were a couple of case of digruntled postal workers taking guns and opening fire on their co-workers and such.
Come now, we’re talking about carriers delivering mail on the street in dangerous areas, not going nuts in the office and spraying it with semi=automatic rifle fire to achieve some sort of twisted revenge.
Unless you’re trying to whoosh me, in which case I guess you’ve been successful, and I’ll give you such a smack…
Growbf! That would be semi-automatic. Semi=automatic sounds like some sort of contradiction.
That’s not entirely true. 90% of the people in Summit County Colorado don’t get mail delivery. Same with the rural areas of Park County. I don’t get mail delivery, I have a P.O. box in town.
All I’ve ever seen mail carriers packing is dog repellant.
Since Postal Workers aren’t considered peace officers (unlike Postal Inspectors), they aren’t carrying weapons legally.
And while people joke about the phrase “going Postal”, the US Postal Service does not have a particularly high rate of on the job violence. Certainly it’s a far safer profession than being a police officer, fireman, or cab driver. And probably many others.
Neither rain nor sleet nor snow nor hail of bullets…
But if there are those that do carry weapons, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re doing so illegally. It’s perfectly legal to carry weapons in vast areas of the United States.
Maybe the post office has rules against it (Idunno), but do those rules carry the force of law (again, Idunno)?
Back in my UPS days (note: UPS, not USPS), they did try to match folks to certain routes. This would probably violate several statutes nowadays, but on “certain” routes they always assigned one of the (large) black guys, since others would be harassed too much. Conversely, in some high dollar neighborhoods, it was best to send a white driver. Some folks simply wouldn’t open their doors to a black man after dark. (during Christmas season, there were lots of late deliveries to houses)
Not exactly an answer to the OP, but maybe similar enough to be relevant.
I would think that having letter carriers toting around weapons would be against USPS work regulations and expose the USPS to an enormous liability risk.
I called my sister’s long time SO, a long time employee of the USPS. According to him, mail will not be delivered if there is any known threat to the carrier. This can include a single residence (usually a dog problem) or an entire neighborhood. And one of the quickest ways to be fired would be armed while delivering. They are allowed to carry USPS issued pepper spray though.
There are rural areas in the county I live in that the USPS will not deliver to roadside mailboxes due to the high rate of mail theft. Those folks are given free PO boxes in lieu of home delivery.
This is not true. Many neighboorhoods, having nothing to do with crime, must get their mail at the post office. Summerland, California, just down the freeway from me, is one of them.
Haj