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

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2002 00:15:38 -0400
From: Ben Brunk <brunkb () ils unc edu>
To: declan () well com
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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