Postal Inspection Service: Difference between revisions

{{Redirects|USPIS|the ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' episode|USPIS (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)}}{{Infobox law enforcement agency

# '''Joint Task Force Investigations:''' USPIS participates in joint task force investigations where laws applicable to the mail service are involved. These cases are often wide-ranging and involve every law enforcement agency of the federal government. For example, USPIS participated in the largest count indictment and conviction in [[NASA]] history, the Omniplan case, that put seven companies out of business and ended with the conviction of Omniplan owner, Ralph Montijo, on 179 federal crimes.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D02E1DA1139F934A25752C0A960958260 |title=Businessman Is Sentenced For Bilking Space Agency |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 17, 1996 | first=Allen R. | last=Myerson}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Omniplan Owners Plead Guilty |newspaper=The Bay Area Citizen |date=February 3, 1995}}</ref>

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service first established a [[crime lab]] in 1940.<ref name="Bell">{{cite book |first=Suzanne |last=Bell |date=2008 |title=Crime and Circumstance: Investigating the History of Forensic Science |location=[[Westport, Connecticut]] |publisher=[[Praeger Publishers|Praeger]] |page=107 |isbn=978-0-31335-386-4}}</ref> Today, the National Forensic Laboratory is located in [[Dulles, Virginia]]<ref name="LabUSPSIS">{{cite web |url=https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/aboutus/lab.aspx |title=Forensic Laboratory Services |website=U.S. Postal Inspection Service |access-date=November 23, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123091437/https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/aboutus/lab.aspx |archive-date=November 23, 2016}}</ref> in a two-story, 44,000-square-foot facility.<ref name="Goudarzi">{{cite web |url=http://www.labmanager.com/research-specific-labs/2012/01/perspective-on-a-forenics-lab |title=Perspective On: A Forensics Lab |first=Sara |last=Goudarzi |date=January 20, 2012 |website=Lab Manager}}</ref> The lab is staffed by forensic scientists and technical experts and consists of four units: the Questioned Documents Unit, the Fingerprint Unit, the Physical Sciences Unit, and the Digital Evidence Unit.<ref name="LabUSPSIS" /> The laboratory is overseen by a laboratory director, and each of the four units is overseen by an assistant laboratory director.<ref name="Goudarzi" /> There are also four satellite offices, located in [[New York City|New York]], [[Chicago]], [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]], and [[San Francisco]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |first=Dorothy Moses |last=Schultz |chapter=U.S. Postal Inspection Service |editor1-last=Sullivan |editor1-first=Larry E. |editor2-last=Rosen |editor2-first=Marie Simonetti |date=2005 |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement |volume=1 |location=[[Thousand Oaks, California]] |publisher=[[SAGE Publications]] |page=884 |isbn=978-0-76192-649-8}}</ref>

For more than 150 years, postal inspectors have pursued criminals who use the mail to defraud victims. Their experience with fraud investigations has encompassed many types of schemes from the most simple to highly complex, international frauds. [[Fraud]] is a crime that can be reduced or prevented by educating the general public and specific groups, such as the elderly and military veterans. Accordingly, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service has conducted numerous crime prevention campaigns over the years. The following list has been compiled for historical reference.[[File:2016 Ford Police Interceptor Utility belonging to the US Postal Police, NYC.jpg|thumb|Postal Police vehicle in [[New York City]], a 2016 [[Ford Explorer]]]]'''Active Crime Prevention Campaigns:'''