I think if the USPO was capturing this data, then it should be available to everyone.
It wouldn't be a "gift" from the USPS. It would be a mutually beneficial financial contract. (E.g. 5 year multi-million dollar contract to mount Google cameras.)
Similar to how private events pay the government for extra police officers to direct traffic or supplement security. Or how the Pentagon charged the Top Gun film production $25,000 to turn an aircraft carrier around.[1] Government entities have set the precedent that they will sell services to private companies.
The citizens' access to the USPS photos would a given and be part of the contract.
[1] https://www.quora.com/Why-did-it-cost-25-000-to-turn-the-shi...
If not that reason, the government could come up with other justifications. (The US government is very good at coming up with justifications for anything.)
In any case, getting some extra revenue from trucks already burning up huge amounts of fossil fuel to deliver mail seems like an eco-green win/win.
[1] https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2016/pr16_092....
The postal service owns tons of valuable land and also could easily charge amazon, etc. competitive rates when abused for their last mile services.
I'd rather my postal service not be treated like another shitty wall street commodity. We all benefit from its continued existence, warts and all.
Please see https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2017/pr17_007....
Summary:
- operation cost reduced
- holiday sales saw growth
- first-class mail saw continued loss
It is known USPS has been losing money for many years now due to the raise of emails and now social media and instant messaging.
This is a strong reason some people proposed to privatize USPS instead.
So there is precedent for a private company paying a pseudo-USG entity for private benefit.