The head of the city’s investigatory agency ripped Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday for allowing his NYPD security team to be turned into a “concierge service” for his son.
During a press conference following the release of a scathing Department of Investigation report, DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett declared that the mayor’s security team members have in recent years chauffeured son Dante de Blasio around the five boroughs for personal needs rather than the unit’s intended purpose.
“In practice, what is happening is that, you know, it’s not security; it’s essentially a concierge service, primarily for Dante,” she said. “And that, I think, you know — based on the view of experts we spoke to, and our examination of the facts and this matter — it’s either not good security, or it’s not good government, or both.”
“It’s no way to run a railroad.”
Garnett explained that the mayor’s son used the security detail when convenient — not when cops protecting him are most needed.
“If Dante de Blasio has to pick up a prescription at CVS on the Upper East Side of Manhattan at 2 o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, and he doesn’t want to walk there because it’s raining, then he can be driven there by a trained NYPD detective,” she said.
“On the other hand, if he wants to go with his friends as young people do, I’m told to, you know, an underground dance party in Bushwick, at 1 a.m. a Saturday night, and be surrounded by hundreds of drunken strangers, and doesn’t want your will be a drag to have police officers take him there or be with them, he’s entirely unprotected.”
Her comments come after city investigators found that de Blasio’s security team was used for “political purposes” during his failed presiden꧑tial campaign and to run “errands” for him — including helping his daughter move and shuttling his brother to New Jersey.
The 49-paꦯge probe, released Thursday morning, showed that the NYPD shelled out $319,794 on the NYPD security team accompanying the mayor as he traversed the country during his quixotic bid — including to a Red Sox game — and that his detail members “occasionally” transported his campaign staffers while driving the mayor.
