TPAF Submits FOIA to USPS Over Agency’s Surveillance of Americans
Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation
February 22, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance Foundation (TPAF) is submitting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in response to a February 13 Inspector General report detailing the agency’s spying and surveillance apparatus. According to the report, the agency has 10,000 pieces of surveillance equipment valued at $65 million. TPA is submitting the FOIA to find out more about the USPS’ surveillance equipment and activities:
TPAF President David Williams discussed this issue in a recent Townhall op-ed, noting:
“Ironically, while the USPS is keeping track of Americans, the agency cannot be trusted to keep track of the surveillance equipment it is using to spy on Americans. The IG identified, ‘134 of 404 (33 percent) pieces of electronic surveillance equipment and 464 of 1,238 (37 percent) pieces of technical surveillance equipment that…were either recorded with errors or were not recorded in the inventory management system.’
“Further, policies and procedures around equipment use have not been updated, increasing the risk that employees will abuse surveillance resources. Until the USPS prioritizes fighting crime over snooping on Americans, taxpayers and consumers cannot place their trust in the troubling agency. America’s mail carrier makes for a lousy CIA.
This FOIA is just the beginning of TPAF’s activities in bringing more accountability to the USPS.”