[Disclaimer: Due to my Department's restrictive internal disciplinary policies regarding their personnel's expression of personal opinion, certain details and aspects of my background have been intentionally redacted from this story.]
The purpose of this post is informational in nature, as it contains scarcely known, but public, legal information that could become of value to you as a citizen or business owner. As always, comments are welcomed and encouraged.
Introduction
Unless you're Columbo, investigative casework is a time consuming pursuit that requires tracking down evidence of all kinds; witness statements, video and audio records, financial statements, etc. Sometimes, depending on the context of the investigation, the owner or guardian of the aforementioned evidence will give the police their consent and volunteer this information. Other times, an administrative subpoena is generated and served to the individual, or business, thereby "ordering" their surrender of this material (I've put the word ordering in quotations for reasons I'm going to expound upon shortly). Which brings me to this post's main subject matter : administrative subpoenas.
Administrative Subpoena, Defined
Put simply, an administrative subpoena is a subpoena issued by a law enforcement (either Federal or State) agency without having sought prior judicial oversight. This differs from a judicial subpoena in one key aspect; it is not signed off on and approved by a judge before being served, thus removing the courts from the approval process altogether. Therefore, at its core, this document functions as a law enforcement agency's request for information that has circumvented judicial approval.
How They are Issued
In order to serve an administrative subpoena, the investigator must have sufficient evidence for his or her agency's Legal Department to deem the subpoena necessary and justified. After the request is submitted, the Legal Department's attorneys review it and issue their decision. Usually, but not always, an administrative subpoena is only issued to an individual or business living or located under the agency's jurisdiction. For example, I've seen an administrative subpoena issued from the New York City Police Department to businesses located in Connecticut. The catch here is this; these requests are very rarely denied.
Subpoena Compliance Units
All of the major cell phone carriers, including but not limited to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile, all employ what are called "Subpoena Compliance Units". These units have been put into place to process the immense amounts of subpoenas and warrants the corporations receive from law enforcement agencies across the country on a daily basis. Therefore, one of their main functions is to accept and process administrative subpoenas. The vast majority of the time, these subpoenas are processed without question, and the results (usually cellular phone, GPS information, or text message records) are forwarded to the requesting investigator via email or fax (yes, we still use fax machines...). Furthermore, these companies are usually "ordered" to refrain from notifying their customer for a certain period of time (usually 60 or 90 days). Therefore, by the time you've been notified by your carrier about an agency requesting your information (which they do), the requested information has usually already been handed over and reviewed by the requesting agency.
So What?
So, for the sake of argument, let's say that you're an individual or business owner who's been served with an administrative subpoena, and you feel that said subpoena is overreaching and beyond the purview of a practical request for information. Now I'm not in a position to give legal advice, but I will tell you what I would do in this situation:
- Contact my attorney and allow him/her to review the subpoena.
- Have my attorney contact the requesting agency and request that they resend the request in the form of a judicial subpoena, reviewed and signed by a judge.
Often times, the requesting agency will be unable to secure a judicial subpoena and the administrative subpoena becomes practically unenforceable, thereby releasing you of your "ordered" obligation to release your information. Take it for what it's worth!
The author of this article is an active New York City Police Officer, currently serving the City in an investigative capacity.
I'd also like to take an opportunity to thank the Steemit community for the support, comments, feedback, and suggestions thus far that have influenced, and will continue to influence, this blog's subject matter. @andrarchy, @thejohalfiles, @ekklesiagora, @dexter-k, @jenkinrocket, @gwiss, to name a few. Thanks for reading!
Agreed. Ask them for a real one, as in a judicial subpoena.