Judge strikes down use of secret subpoenas in State Police internal probes
Ruling undermines agency s practice of sifting through personal records of employees
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New York State Police Superintendent Keith Corlett. (Will Waldron/Times Union)Will Waldron/Albany Times Union
ALBANY The long-standing practice of state agencies to secretly use their administrative subpoena authority to sift the personal records of employees in internal investigations was struck down by a state Supreme Court justice in a ruling that found the State Police were not adhering to the provisions of Public Officers Law.
The ruling by state Supreme Court Justice Patrick J. McGrath was handed down in a case filed in December 2019 by the New York State Police Investigators Association, which challenged the State Police practice of using subpoenas to access the smartphone, personal email and other private records of employees without their knowledge during internal investigations.