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Spokane’s Faith Scene: The Underground Progressive Movement Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane
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14 INLANDER August 22, 2013
news | postal service “risky delivery,” continued... “There’s certain things the BDS can and can’t pick up,” Wilson says, adding only that the local system did work as it was calibrated to operate. National officials earlier this month also confirmed the Postal Service photographs and logs every piece of mail processed through the system. Officials stressed they do not open any letters, which would require a warrant, but record all of the exterior address information into databases. The information is reportedly kept for as long as a month and can be accessed by law enforcement if requested. Local postal employees also get training to watch for and recognize hazardous substances, keeping an eye out for unknown powder or leaky fluids. Workers receive additional training on spotting suspicious labeling such as excessive postage, vague return addresses or signs of deliberate deception. Joe Stephenson, a team leader with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Seattle, says inspectors have learned a lot since 2001 as they have ramped up new mail protections and responded to a variety of new threats. He says the agency continuously works to examine its own protocols and its institutional safeguards. “The mail’s safer than ever,” he says. “There are more measures now than there ever have been.”
T
he Spokane ricin letters hit close to home for Jack Talcott, local president of the American Postal Workers Union. One of the five letters was addressed to the downtown Spokane Post Office on Riverside Avenue, to a department where his union members typically open and sort the mail. Talcott, who represents approximately 300 Spokane-area mail clerks and sorters, says the local attack was both surreal and unsettling. He says union members approached him with safety concerns and questions about security after the letters surfaced. “It really was kind of an eye-opener,” he says. “Not just for
Federal investigators search a Browne’s Addition apartment this spring. jacob jones photo myself, but for a lot of other employees as well.” While he has enjoyed his 14 years with the Postal Service, Talcott says he has also watched security become more of an everyday concern throughout the system. Mail gets locked down. Work areas get closer monitoring. Training expands to include more emergency exercises and new terrorism scenarios. “It has changed, honestly,” he says. “Since the anthrax exposures, the training has absolutely increased. ... I think it’s even part of the employee orientation.” Talcott notes every Postal Service worker must pass a background check and their fingerprints get put on file. Most employees consider