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US Post Office Increases Secret Tracking of Mail
HughPickens.com writes: Ron Nixon reports in the NY Times that the United States Postal Service says it approved nearly 50,000 requests last year from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to secretly monitor the mail of Americans for use in criminal and national security investigations, in many cases without adequately describing the reason or having proper written authorization. In addition to raising privacy concerns, the audit questioned the efficiency and accuracy of the Postal Service in handling the requests. The surveillance program, officially called mail covers, is more than a century old, but is still considered a powerful investigative tool. The Postal Service said that from 2001 through 2012, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies made more than 100,000 requests to monitor the mail of Americans. That would amount to an average of some 8,000 requests a year — far fewer than the nearly 50,000 requests in 2013 that the Postal Service reported in the audit (PDF).
In Arizona in 2011, Mary Rose Wilcox, a Maricopa County supervisor, discovered that her mail was being monitored by the county's sheriff, Joe Arpaio. Wilcox had been a frequent critic of Arpaio, objecting to what she considered the targeting of Hispanics in his immigration sweeps. Wilcox sued the county, was awarded nearly $1 million in a settlement in 2011 and received the money this June when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling. Andrew Thomas, the former county attorney, was disbarred for his role in investigations into the business dealings of Ms. Wilcox and other officials and for other unprofessional conduct. "I don't blame the Postal Service," says Wilcox, "but you shouldn't be able to just use these mail covers to go on a fishing expedition. There needs to be more control."
In Arizona in 2011, Mary Rose Wilcox, a Maricopa County supervisor, discovered that her mail was being monitored by the county's sheriff, Joe Arpaio. Wilcox had been a frequent critic of Arpaio, objecting to what she considered the targeting of Hispanics in his immigration sweeps. Wilcox sued the county, was awarded nearly $1 million in a settlement in 2011 and received the money this June when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling. Andrew Thomas, the former county attorney, was disbarred for his role in investigations into the business dealings of Ms. Wilcox and other officials and for other unprofessional conduct. "I don't blame the Postal Service," says Wilcox, "but you shouldn't be able to just use these mail covers to go on a fishing expedition. There needs to be more control."
Arpaio pretty much is a gangster.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
if you don't want to be tracked you may want to choose a competitor who will not provide your data to the government that way.
Yes, I am sure that UPS and FedEx will defend my privacy with their lives. Are you aware of a competitor who is unlikely to provide my data to the government?
The first class mail delivery has to be opened to the competition, the USPS has a monopoly on it
What would be the point of doing this? To get better mail rates as long as you live in one of the top-10 major cities?
Yeah, but he's a right wing gangster, so you won't hear Republicans screaming about it like they do with the IRS.
Because you get a choice of the a or b side of bad? The two party system is broken by design to give the illusion of choice.
No sir I dont like it.
Arpaio is pretty much regarded out here as as the devil we know.
You can cross the line all you want in Arizona, but as long as you're America's Toughest Sheriff, you can be reelected forever. He's tough on pretty much every hot-button issue out here. Immigration, animal abuse, deadbeat dads, you name it. We elected him 50-46 this time, his closest race ever, I believe, in his 22 years as Maricopa County's sheriff.
As a young man, I spend a week or two in Tent City when it first came into existence ('93). It sucked, but it didn't suck nearly as much as the temporary loss of freedom for being jailed.
When discussing him once before, someone posted some fairly awful stats for crime in MCSO jurisdiction. For those people not in Phoenix, the MCSO runs our county jails, but only provides policing for rural areas and unincorporated areas of town, which are, generally speaking, shitholes. If you see MCSO officers on Cops, rest assured they're in an armpit or asshole of Phoenix metro. Laveen and Guadalupe spring to mind. :( They also service a few county islands between cities along the river bottom, but that's a tiny fraction of their service area.
Arpaio is no doubt a dick, but he wears a target too, since he makes an easy punching bag for the left.
stop making this a left/right issue. Its not.
Somewhere in the neigborhood of 20% of our country has no UPS or FedEx. Both of those companies rely on the USPS to deliver for them since they would make no money doing it themselves. If the mail system were privatized there would be a lot of this country where there wouldn't be any mail since it would be a money losing venture.
Luckily the foundation of the USPS was considered vital enough for our republic that its establishment is in the constitution.
Pigs at the trough, the whole lot of 'em. Who gives a fuck whether they're eating from the left or right side it's all the same.
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