With the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001 still fresh in many minds, the U.S. post office in Baltimore City made a cost-cutting decision that has proven costly.
Officials replaced about 20 postal police officers on shifts with cheaper, less-trained security guards who don?t carry weapons.
Now, the U.S. Postal Service could pay up to $2.6 million in missed pay to its Baltimore postal police officers after an arbitrator ruled the move violated the officers? union contract, according to documents obtained by The Examiner.
The security guards? “only function was to observe things and call in and have a postal police officer respond. If someone has bad intentions, you won?t be able to get there to stop them in time,” said Daniel Dunlap, Eastern Area National Representative for the postal police officers? union.
On Dec. 20, 2004, the city began using contract security employees for perimeter and building security at certain posts in violation of union contract ? which caused arbitrator Sue Olinger Shaw to rule Sept. 18 that Baltimore postal police officers are owed overtime with interest for their missed work.
Postal security came into sharp focus when mail containing anthrax killed five people in 2001, including two postal workers at Washington?s Brentwood mail processing facility. But the U.S. Postal Service has reduced its number of officers since the anthrax and Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a move that has drawn criticism from several Congressional leaders, including Sen. Joseph Lieberman.
“We are concerned that the Postal Service seems to be eliminating law enforcement measures at a time of greatest need to protect our citizens from possible terrorism,” Lieberman and five elected officials wrote in a 2003 letter to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
Baltimore U.S. Postal Inspector spokesman Frank Schissler said he believed the Baltimore case has national implications, since other cities have been using security guards.
“Clearly, management is abiding by the ruling,” he said. “We haven?t used those security guards since last month. They are still being used at other locations.”
