Letter carriers won't help track terrorists. (Security Beat).

The Department of Justice wants industry to encourage workers to participate in Operation TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System). In certain sectors, "workers are ideally suited to help in the antiterrorism effort because their routines allow them to recognize unusual events and have expressed a desire for a mechanism to report these events to authorities," said the program's web site. The government wants citizens to "identify suspicious or unusual activities in public areas and along transportation routes.

The United States Postal Service however, has declined to participate in the project until a more constructive plan is proposed. "Our letter carriers are union employees and we could not and would not agree to their participation in this program without first discussing all aspects of the program with them first and allow them input into the decision," said Sue Brennan, a Postal Service spokesperson.

Operation TIPS is a national program that calls upon "millions of American workers who, in the daily course of their work, are in a unique position to see potentially unusual or suspicious activity in public places," according to its web site, at www.citizencorps.gov.

The program is one of several comprising one of the Bush administration's homeland security initiatives, called 'Citizen Corps.'