U.S. Postal Police?

Here's a question for anyone who can help:

I just got back from a vacation to NYC & the Jersey shore (family's got a beach house). While there, we drove by a white SUV (Ford Explorer, IIRC) that had USPS decals on the sides and your average, red/blue police light bar on the top.

I figured that this would be some type of Postal Inspector car (because it states on their website that they're regular, firearm-carrying, law-enforcing officers), but I decided to fire off an e-mail to my uncle (who's a retired postal carrier) just to make sure.

This was his response:

Any ideas from you guys?

 

Wouldn't they have different types of postal inspectors?

We have postal inspectors coming into work on a regular basis. They inspect all sorts of things - but mostly making sure we're meeting postal regulations on mailbagging, inkjetting, processing, packaging, etc. These guys come in regular clothes and drive their own vehicles.

If I had to guess.... any postal employee whom carries a gun is probably a *Security* officer. Those guys are probably inspecting for illegal substances and/or bombs that can threaten people/our country. They probably aren't local folks but might be called in if any post office suspects an illegal container.. or whatever.

 

Nevermind. I got a response on another forum. There is aparrently a "Postal Police" that differs from Postal Inspectors. They usually handle security at major postal hubs.

 

Are they there to prevent you from going "POSTAL"! Like back many years ago, you would hear on the news often a postal worker shooting up the place. I never hear of that on the news anymore.