page_title: United States Postal Service
section_title: Law enforcement agencies
hierarchical_section_title: United States Postal Service / Law enforcement agencies
caption_attribution_description: Packages for FDA review at JFK IMF. The FDA’s activities at the International Mail Facilities (IMF) are intended to provide a front line defense against unapproved drugs entering the United States. With staff assigned to all nine IMFs throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, FDA investigators are responsible for monitoring mail importations of FDA regulated products by conducting comprehensive examinations of suspect packages.
context_page_description: The United States Postal Service is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the United States, including its insular areas and associated states. It is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.
  The USPS traces its roots to 1775 during the Second Continental Congress, when Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first postmaster general. The Post Office Department was created in 1792 with the passage of the Postal Service Act. It was elevated to a cabinet-level department in 1872, and was transformed by the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970 into the United States Postal Service as an independent agency. Since the early 1980s, many direct tax subsidies to the USPS have been reduced or eliminated.
  The USPS, as of 2019, has 469,934 career employees and 136,174 non-career employees. The Postal Service is legally obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. The Post Office has exclusive access to letter boxes marked "U.S.
context_section_description: Under the Mail Cover Program USPS photographs the front and back of every piece of U.S. mail as part of the sorting process, enabling law enforcement to obtain address information and images of the outsides of mail as part of an investigation without the need for a warrant.
caption: The Food and Drug Administration inspects packages for illegal drug shipments
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