New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered members of his NYPD security detail to drive his son to Yale University and back multiple times, the
New York Daily News reported Monday.Former members of the Executive Protection Unit with direct knowledge of the matter said detectives from the unit ferried de Blasio's son Dante to Yale several times during his freshman year. Dante decided in his sophomore year that he would rather ride the train to the university, and officers would pick him up upon his return to Penn Station."If you were told to bring him home from Yale, that’s what we did," one former unit member said."If the commanding officer of the 75 (precinct) said, ‘move my kid to college,’ do you really think that wouldn’t kill his career?" another former member commented. "But because it’s the mayor, everyone just does it."The reports come after city officials admitted in August that Executive Protection Unit officers helped move de Blasio's daughter Chiara out of her apartment to the mayor's residence while on duty."Members of the family’s detail were standing by and offered to help," the mayor's press secretary Freddi Goldstein insisted at the time. "Their involvement was strictly voluntary."The NYC Department of Investigation is probing the current incident but has so far refused to elaborate on the details."DOI is aware of the matter and declines further comment," a DOI spokesperson told the Daily News.De Blasio ended his presidential campaign earlier this year after consistently underperforming in polling. An August survey found the mayor had a lower approval rating than
President Trump in deep-blue New York City.New York City's largest
police union slammed de Blasio when he announced the end of his presidential bid."This campaign proved that it doesn’t really matter whether Mayor Bill de Blasio is speaking to empty rooms in Iowa or spinning his wheels in a Park Slope gym. What matters to New Yorkers is that he isn’t doing his job,” union head Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement.