NBC New York has revealed the New York Police Department has issued over 217,000 secret subpoenas to force internet providers and other companies to hand over personal information for tens of thousands of people for so-called internal investigations. Targets of the subpoenas include journalists and officers who criticize the NYPD. One target was Philip Insardi, who retired from the department in 1993. He was alerted by Microsoft after the NYPD demanded access to all of his emails, citing a provision under the USA PATRIOT Act.

Philip Insardi: “The PATRIOT Act wasn’t created to go after a retired cop who goes tuna fishing. That’s not the PATRIOT Act. Absolutely shocking that they were abusing, or are abusing, the PATRIOT Act to investigate civilians.”

One retired police captain compared the NYPD to the gestapo.