NEARLY three months after quitting as Police Commissioner, Howard Safir is guarded around the clock by an unprecedented squad of up to 13 NYPD cops, The Post has learned.
The cops in the security detail – which has included two sergeants and 11 detectives – have been protecting and chauffeuring Safir, and sometimes his family, since he quit in August to take a job here with Atlanta-based ChoicePoint, a national law-enforcement data company.
He’s kept mum on his salary, but sources speculate he’ll make a “comfortable” six-figure salary for his role.
Each member of Safir’s huge protective detail earns around $80,000 a year. With the unusual security arrangement continuing for at least three more months – maybe longer – the final cost to taxpayers is likely to top out at more than $500,000.
The detail has four NYPD vehicles, including a van and Lincoln Town Car limousine, at its disposal to take Safir everywhere he goes – to his private security job, to doctors treating his prostate cancer, to restaurants and nighttime celebrations, and even to Yankee and Shea stadiums, where he took in the Subway Series last month.
Only one police commissioner in recent memory retained NYPD protection after leaving One Police Plaza – former top cop Raymond Kelly, a highly visible figure during the World Trade Center investigation of Muslim terrorists.
Kelly allowed one cop to guard him for about three weeks. Every other commissioner declined protection.
The size of Safir’s complement is also troubling because it is larger than some NYPD detective squads.
For example, the 17th Precinct, which serves hundreds of thousands of people living and working between East 29th and East 59th streets, from the East River to Lexington Avenue – and includes the United Nations – has 12 detectives on its squad. So does the 7th Precinct in congested lower Manhattan.
In the 19th Precinct, where Safir lives, 22 detectives investigate murder, rapes and robberies occurring on the Upper East Side from East 59th to East 96th streets, from Fifth Avenue to the East River.
Safir kept his large security detail – including advance teams – by exercising his right as an outgoing top cop to keep police protection if he feels a legitimate threat against his safety exists. The move was approved by City Hall.
After six months, his security concerns will be reassessed by the Police Department and Safir to determine if it should be continued or scaled down.
To get protection, Safir cited a couple of dozen threats against him during the latter portion of his four years atop the NYPD during the period of stinging criticism following the police torture of Abner Louima and the police shooting death of Amadou Diallo.
But sources described the Safir threats as anonymous and outdated 911 phone calls made from pay phones where callers barked threats against “the commissioner.”
The NYPD had no official comment, declining to discuss security matters.
But informal reaction from several present and former top police officials ranged from surprise to outright disgust.
“Holy s—!” said a former police commissioner, who knew Safir had “some cops” guarding him.
“It is a disgrace,” a former first deputy commissioner said. “The notion he needs these people to protect him is a farce, and it is a continuation of an imperial commissionership.”
“It’s outrageous,” another former NYPD commissioner said.
“I can’t speak about Mr. Safir, but I said goodbye to my detail when they dropped me off at home on my last day,” said William Bratton, adding, “We live in the safest big city in America.”
Safir failed to return calls seeking comment. But while he was commissioner, Safir repeatedly declined to discuss his security, saying only that he accepted security levels that were recommended to him.
Last year, Safir was criticized for using eight detectives for his daughter’s wedding to chauffeur and protect him, his wife, Carol, and other guests at taxpayer expense.
He also was forced to repay $7,100 to Revlon for allowing the cosmetics company to fly him and his wife to the Oscars in Hollywood and to foot the bill on a hotel room.
And he had to defend assigning a complement of 25 cops to the new Police Museum, run by his wife, that often attracts as few as a handful of visitors a day.