Anti-terror cops are still chauffeuring around New York City bureaucrats, even on the heels of terror attacks in France.
The offices of Public Advocate Letitia James and City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito could not come up with a defense for the ongoing practice, first exposed by The Post two months ago, and passed the buck to the NYPD. Comptroller Scott Stringer’s office said he was doing what the NYPD recommended.
Each of the relatively unknown politicians has an eight-person security detail pulled from the elite NYPD Intelligence Division whose members usually spend their time looking for criminal activity and potential terrorists. The Post reported that the detail of drivers is made up of six detectives, one sergeant and one lieutenant — and two of them are on duty at a time.
Most members of Stringer’s detail asked to be transferred back to their regular work, fed up with the comptroller ordering them to drive his wife, Elyse Buxbaum, to work and chewing them out for being late to do so, sources told The Post. Stringer would be in the car with his wife so as not to break city rules.
“Comptroller Stringer follows all New York Police Department recommendations regarding his security detail,” a spokesman said.
The city’s Conflicts of Interest Board ruled in 2009 that police can drive bureaucrats to both official events and on personal errands including weekend trips.
James told The Post in November that she would support an independent review of the current policies, but apparently no such examination has started.
Deputy Chief Kim Royster, an NYPD spokeswoman, said without elaboration, “Security for elected officials is determined based on threat assess
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