Postmen fight for change after crime rise

RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – The Peppermill's Tuscany Ballroom will be packed this week for the National Rural Letter Carriers Association's annual meeting.

The group's chairman is Don Maston. He says rural mail carriers and those who work in cities essentially do the same job, just represented by two different unions. Rural mail carriers don't wear uniforms, but often deliver in the suburbs.

Both groups have one thing in common: they are much more frequently targeted by criminals

“We need something to protect us. Violence has increased,” said Cedric Taylor, a mail carrier in Texas.

“In the past, no one messed with mail carriers,” Maston said. “Now there are mail carriers who have been robbed at gunpoint.”

Maston claims that in one case that occurred in San Francisco, the perpetrator received only a 30-day jail sentence.

Union fights for tougher penalties

According to Maston, there have been over 2,000 attacks on mail carriers since 2020, and usually the thieves' goal is to steal their arrow key, which can be used to open all mailboxes in a certain area. According to Matson, this concept is outdated and laws are being worked on to change it.

“HR 7629 would replace the outdated arrow key with a more modern version,” he explained. “So if a criminal steals a key, we would disable it and it would be useless to the criminal.”

Switching from the old arrow keys to new electronic key fobs would cost billions nationwide, but Maston says lawmakers from both parties are on board. He's not happy, however, that our area's Congressman, Mark Amodei, hasn't signed on yet.

A rally is planned for Tuesday, August 26, at 6:30 p.m. at City Plaza.

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