FC: U.S. Postal Service now requires ID to send packages?

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Fri Sep 06 2002 - 22:08:55 PDT

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    Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2002 00:15:38 -0400
    From: Ben Brunk <brunkbat_private>
    To: declanat_private
    Subject: post office on college campuses now ask for ID
    
    Declan,
    
    Not sure if you would be interested in this, but I found out yesterday that 
    USPS "Contract Stations" (which are staffed by non-USPS employees and 
    mostly exist on college campuses throughout the US), now require you to 
    present a student ID if you are mailing a package over 1lb.  When I pressed 
    the manager for details, I was told that this is a new regulation imposed 
    on them by the USPS and that USPS officials came around to UNC and are 
    forcing them to ask for IDs since sometime last week, although these 
    regulations have apparently been in effect much longer.  They also required 
    some changes to how the packages are sorted, but I did not follow up on 
    that part.
    
    Needless to say, I was very startled by this new requirement and refused to 
    present any ID whatsoever--I took my package to a regular post office and 
    mailed it from there.  The only way that I can see that this could be legal 
    is due to the fact that our university requires students to present their 
    student ID to any campus official when asked to do so.  I find that rule to 
    be a bit totalitarian, to say the least.  I read the rule to mean "campus 
    law enforcement officials" but apparently it has suddenly (and without any 
    fanfare, as usual) been expanded.  I fail to see asking for an ID and then 
    not taking down any information deters terror.  I also cannot understand 
    how people working for the USPS by proxy can be given a power that regular 
    postal employees do not have.
    
    Anyways, I thought it was interesting that our government trusts college 
    students less than it trusts the average postal customer.  So now my 
    university has been drafted in the terror war and I am guilty until proven 
    innocent.  How long will it be until I have to present an ID in order to 
    leave my apartment?
    
    
    Later,
    
    Ben Brunk
    School of Information and Library Science
    UNC Chapel Hill 
    
    
    
    
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