The NYPD inspector accused of obstructing a probe into former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s security detail use has been stripped of his gun and badge, sources said.
Inspector Howard Redmond, the ex-head of the NYPD’s Executive Protection Unit under de Blasio, was suspended without pay Tuesday, police sources confirmed.
“He was suspended pending an ongoing investigation,” an NYPD spokesperson said.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office had been weighing criminal charges against Redmond since 2021 after the city’s Department of Investigation revealed the inspector “actively obstructed and sought to thwart” the agency’s probe.
No criminal charges have been made public against Redmond. A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA did not immediately respond for comment.
Cops who face suspension without pay typically face serious allegations such as internal misconduct or criminal charges.
The inspector was accused of stonewalling investigators looking into the former mayor and former First Family’s possible misuse of NYPD security when in office.
Ex-DOI Commissioner Margaret Garnett said at the time, the mayor’s son, Dante de Blasio, used the detail as a “concierge service.”
Redmond was the only one in the report to be referred to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for potential criminal charges.
The 49-page report said the inspector refused to hand over his phone for months. He eventually did, after being ordered by a supervisor, and destroyed the device “under the guise of receiving an upgraded device.”
The report also accused the inspector of ordering subordinates “to impede the NYPD from getting access to EPU communications when ‘dumping’ NYPD phones and emails during investigations.”
“DOI has concluded that the NYPD inspector in charge of the First Family’s security detail actively obstructed and sought to thwart this investigation, frustrating DOI’s efforts to learn the full facts regarding these allegations,” the report reads.
Neither Redmond nor his union representative could be reached Tuesday night.