Top cop sorry for subpoena vs. journalist
The city’s top cop said Wednesday the department was wrong to subpoena a New York Post bureau chief’s Twitter data as part of its mission to clamp down on leakers, admitting that “mistakes were made.”
“There were certainly other avenues we can take,” said NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea. “I think we were wrong.”
The NYPD subpoenaed Twitter for information about New York Post police bureau chief Tina Moore’s use of the social media app in December in the hopes of finding out who slipped her graphic crime scene images of a shooting at a Brooklyn gambling den where three people were killed.
Moore put the images on Twitter but ultimately pulled them down.
The subpoena — issued a week after Shea took over the department — demanded all email accounts, servers and internet protocol addresses associated with her Twitter account, as well as info on any devices connected to the account. It also instructed Twitter not to let anyone know of the subpoena for 90 days after its issuance, contending any such disclosure could impede the investigation.
Twitter apparently ignored the 90-day request and informed Moore of the subpoena by email, the Post said. After hearing from the Post’s lawyers, the NYPD withdrew the subpoena, the newspaper said.
The Police Department’s lawyer had cited the anti-terrorism Patriot Act in demanding that Twitter turn over information connected to Moore’s account from Oct. 9 to 14.
Moore, who once worked for the Daily News, has declined to comment on the case.
Shea said he considered the mention of the Patriot Act in the subpoena to be boilerplate legalese as NYPD attorneys accounted for all the reasons why they should have Moore’s Twitter usage. He also tried to save some face by claiming his “investigative brain” saw no problem with issuing the subpoena to a member of the free press.
“If you look at the situation, you say, ‘The information came out [from Twitter],’ ” Shea said. “By an investigative standpoint it was logical to start that investigation.”