The unofficial U.S. postal creed says neither rain, nor sleet, nor heat, nor gloom of night will keep carriers from their rounds. Thieves and vicious dogs, however, may be another matter. So the Post Office is delivering a solution.

In broad daylight in Washington, D.C., last year, two armed men attacked a U.S. letter carrier. He was beaten, bound and robbed.

It was one of more than 400 assaults on postal workers nationwide in 2014, up nine percent in the past five years. That same year, dogs attacked carriers more than 5,700 times.

Virginia carrier Nilo Parin was one of them.

“The dog bit me right here,” he said.

The Postal Service had given Parin no way to call for help — until now.

The Postal Service is shipping all 230,000 carriers new mobile devices with a soon-to-be-activated “panic button.” GPS transmits their location to their supervisors every minute. Read more