Local man to head up postal investigations

Local man to head up
postal investigations

Ronald J. Walker

BY VINCENT TODARO

Staff Writer

A Spotswood man who started out as a local letter carrier will now head the investigations unit for one of the nation’s most important law enforcement agencies.

Ronald J. Walker, a Spotswood resident since 1989, has been promoted to inspector in charge of internal and external investigations for the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The position involves overseeing programs related to mail theft, postal burglaries and robberies, financial and revenue investigations, financial crimes databases, fraudulent workers’ compensation and intelligent mail (using high technology to track mail).

"The job I’m going to will have me in charge of people who set policy for the investigations we do and how we handle them," said Walker, who takes on his new role in Washington, D.C., on Monday.

Internal investigations can involve looking into possible wrongdoing by postal workers, such as tampering with the mail. External investigations, he said, include matters such as burglaries at a post office or other criminal acts by an outsider against the post office or its employees

Walker, 51, began as a letter carrier in Spotswood in 1980, after concluding his tenure with the U.S. Marines, for which he did crypto-linguistic work, much of which remains classified.

"Spotswood’s great. I love it here," he said. "It’s a great little town. That’s why my family doesn’t want to leave."

His wife and two grown sons will continue to live in Spotswood, at least for now, even as Walker works in Washington during the week, he said.

In his new position, Walker will be an employee of the law enforcement arm of the federal post office.

"We’re federal agents, with guns, and we make arrests," he said. "As with any other federal agency, it has a number of federal laws to enforce. We have over 200 federal statutes to enforce, in fact."

Among those laws are assaults against postal employees while they are working, the mailing of explosive devices, burglaries at postal facilities, theft of mail and mail fraud.

While most people are familiar with these laws, Walker will also enforce laws that are less well known, such as those prohibiting corporate corruption — the mailing of false financial statements — and workers’ compensation fraud, where postal employees falsify on-the-job injuries.

For Walker, who was born in Atlantic City, the road to his career and latest position has been one of frequent change and growth.

Having joined the Marines in 1972, he was sent to a California school to learn Spanish in a matter of months. He was then sent to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where he served for more than three years doing transcriptions and translations, as well as other tasks.

After leaving the Marines, he began working in Spotswood in 1980 and was then promoted to supervisor of mails and delivery in Spotswood and delivery service analyst in New Brunswick.

In 1986, he received a bachelor’s degree in business management from Rutgers University, New Brunswick.

Walker became a postal inspector in 1987, and in 1996 was promoted to internal crimes team leader and also served as an internal crimes subject matter expert. He became assistant inspector-in-charge in the New York Division in 2000, and for the New Jersey/Caribbean division of the postal service in 2001, which is the position he will leave this week.

"It’s a progression; you try to do your best and work your way up," he said of his climb through the ranks.

As for his new job, he said he relishes moving up in the hierarchy.

"It was an opportunity to move up in the organization and have a say in policy and decision-making for the direction of the organization," he said.

Walker spoke fondly of the service he works for, noting that it is the oldest law enforcement organization in the nation — tracing its lineage back to Benjamin Franklin, the first "assessor" of the Colonial Post Office.

"We have been ensuring the sanctity of the mail since that time period," he said, "and I intend to direct all the resources I can in my new position as inspector in charge at our national headquarters to see that the mail is safe from criminal attack and misuse in the future."

The work of the post office became a national topic during the anthrax crisis of 2001. Walker said those incidents changed the way law enforcement officers do their jobs.

"We have shifted a lot of our attention to investigations of anthrax attacks and increasing emphasis on what we can do to protect the post office and other people from a future similar attack," he said.

The anthrax case has yet to be cracked, but he said he is confident that one day it will be.

Walker noted how the postal service’s handling of public attention is changing somewhat.

"Over the past 10 years, the service has tried to promote itself a little bit and the things we do to ensure that mail is safe for the public to use," he said.