Policing The Mails

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1938, Page 9 (Supplement)

Policing The Mails

A MAIL clerk stole several hundred letters containing magazine subscription money. It was a particularly imprudent thing to do because in no other form of thieving is detection more certain than in tampering with the United States mails.

By Fred C. Kelly.

Being an all-embracing service, with thousands of points of contact, the postal system is extremely sensitive to any departure from normal. Hundreds of complaints received over a period of months were tabulated by postal inspectors. It was noted that most of them came from points between New York and Washington. If letters were lost accidentally, it would be improbable that they should all come from a limited area. Neither was it probable that employees in various post offices within that area should have turned dishonest at the same time. Obviously the trouble must be in the service common to the whole section—the railway mail clerks. Inspectors thus locate a dishonest postal employee by a routine process of elimination. If, for example, a considerable number of senders of missing

letters mailed them in the late afternoon or evening, mail clerks on duty during the day are freed from suspicion. ; Perhaps certain clerks were ill or on vacation during the time letters went : astray. Investigation might show, too, that when certain mail clerks were away no letters containing money were lost. Eventually only two or three men remain under surveillance. Postal inspectors learn everything possible about the mode of life of these men. If _ a man is spending money in excess of his known income, the investigator may properly wonder where the , rest of the money is coming from. Here a postal inspector's job is made easier l>ecause everybody is willing to help him. Banks and business houses, normally F secretive about customers' affairs., wiliE i n gly produce their records to maintain . an honest postal service. 1 When suspicion lias narrowed down c to one man, tl)e time has come to send t test letters. These letters resemble : others that have disappeared, but carry 1 identifiable marks and contain currency. - The numbers on the bills have been 1 noted. Then inspectors check mail that t has passed thfough the suspect's hands, e If test letters are missing he is immedib ately questioned and searched. When confronted with such evidence he usually - admits not only his immediate guilt, f but confesses the extent and duration - of his thievery. Sometimes the test Z must be continued for several weeks

before the suspect is trapped. He may be takinjf other mail without happening to pick one of the baited letters. A search of the home of one man who had been taking letters disclosed 1460 stolen from the mails—some for a mailorder house, some for a book club, others for a charitable institution, and 654 for a magazine. He appropriated only cash, retaining several hundred checks and money-orders. He admitted having taken 3000 dollars. He was sentenced to four years, and fined 1100 dollars. This man is a bachelor, 48 years old, and had been a mail clerk 25 years. His difficulties grew out of a hobby. He is an expert photographer and liked to make pictures of nude women in artistic poses. His salary was inadequate to meet his models' fees. Inspectors find that most employees who yield to temptation after years of honesty do so because of a growing interest in women and gaiety—rarely because of a desire to give their family a more abundant life. Investigations indicate that there is a dangerous ajre for men, and that it is likely to be in the forties. Considering the vast number of letters mailed, those stolen are surprisingly few, and they grow fewer each year. The postal service has a tradition of honesty. Furthermore, increased use of money orders and registered mail has greatly reduced the temptations for stealing, and the certainty of apprehension is a prime deterrent. It is noteworthy that of those in the postal service arrested for embezzlement in 1935, the appointive postmasters themselves, holding political jobs, represented one quarter of all the culprits. There were but four arrests among 35,000 rural carriers, and only 107 out» of 49.000 city carriers, yet out of less than 14,000 appointed postmasters there are 136 arrests. The mails are watched over bv a force of only 540 inspectors, but they are decidedly alert, and their effectiveness is augmented by the co-operation of other government departments. In 1935 they arrested 3450 persons outside the Post Office Department for violation of postal laws, including extortion, fraudulent stock sales and lotteries. No case is ever closed until an offender has been captured and convicted. Business houses which send merchandise by mail often get reports of articles missing from shipments. If they suspect that a customer is imposing upon them, a letter like this goes out: — "Your shipment was checked three times before mailing. Please be prepared to make a signed statement when the postal inspector calls." Usually the customer "finds" "the articles promptly. The most useful form of co-operation the averag" pet son can offer the postal inspectors i>. tiie prompt reporting of anything tin t ap)t';irs to be a clear-cut case of irir 1 tl eft The mai' service i* normally honest- -and anv leparture from normal is attended to with dispatch.