The NYPD still hasn’t laid down the law on how an elected official like the mayor can use the cops assigned to their security detail, according to a report by the city government’s internal watchdog agency. The report issued Wednesday by the city Department of Investigation amounts to a review of whether the NYPD improved its policies following DOI’s damning 2021 report on security detail misuse by ex-Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had his detectives perform tasks for his children and used them on trips around the country during his failed 2020 presidential campaign. The city pays for police protection for various public officials, including the mayor, the comptroller, the public advocate, the City Council speaker, diplomats and heads of state via a special unit in the NYPD’s Intelligence Bureau. The five county district attorneys also receive protection but from detectives assigned to their offices. De Blasio was fined $474,794.20 for the cost to the city of improper use of his detail, including providing police protection during his campaign trips outside the city. In May 2023, a city administrative judge ordered him to pay the fine, but he has contested it and the dispute remains unresolved. The head of de Blasio’s detail, now former NYPD Inspector Howard Redmond, pleaded guilty in August 2023 to obstructing DOI’s investigation and was fired, ordered to perform community service and had to make a public apology. Howard RedmondCurtis Means/for DailyMail.com/POOLHoward Redmond is arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court in 2023. (Curtis Means for DailyMail.com/Pool) The 2021 report concluded that “the root of nearly all of the issues” was the “complete lack of any written policies or procedures at the NYPD for the operation of the mayoral security detail.” DOI’s 2021 report also found detail members received limited training and that there was very little retention of records. De Blasio’s detail, that report said, was using encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp in ways that flouted city rules. The latest report, summarizing an inquiry DOI undertook to see whether the NYPD acted on recommendations it made in 2021, found similar issues are persisting. According to the new report, the NYPD did create “protection detail guidelines” in November 2022 that limits the use of the detail to “official business.” But the guidelines don’t define what constitutes “official business,” the DOI report said. “Four of the five members of service serving on or supervising security details interviewed by DOI, including the deputy inspector and lieutenant supervising a detail, said they were unaware of any rules, regulations, or limitations on the use of a security detail,” the report said without identifying which city official the cops in question protected. “If there is, I wouldn’t know where they are,” the lieutenant told DOI about limits on the use of the detail. The NYPD also doesn’t track trip logs, summaries of a given shift or tour, or other records detailing how the unit was used, DOI investigators found. Moreover, the training that is provided to members of the mayor’s detail only spans two days, the report said, though the NYPD does send members for training by federal law enforcement agencies. “DOI has significant concerns about the sufficiency of the training provided to members of service,” the report said. Under Mayor Adams’ tenure, the NYPD has drawn criticism for assigning security details to some officials who typically don’t receive them — including ex-Deputy Mayor for Public Safety Phil Banks and chief technology officer Matt Fraser, as first reported by the Daily News in 2022. In late 2022, Adams said he personally made the call to give a detail to Banks, who resigned this past fall after getting his home raided by federal authorities as part of a corruption investigation. The NYPD has been somewhat resistant over the years to DOI’s recommendations on detail use. At one point, the NYPD took the position that neither its rules nor the City Charter should limit how police vehicles assigned to the detail are used, the DOI report said. In its written response to DOI, the NYPD “rejected” a recommendation to keep records in a way similar to procedures followed by the Secret Service, the Diplomatic Security Service and U.S. Marshals. In a statement issued Wednesday, an NYPD spokesperson said the cops assigned to executive protection are highly trained. “The department treats with utmost seriousness its mandate to safeguard the security of all of our protectees to the highest professional standards,” the statement said. “The department thanks the DOI for its report. We look forward to reviewing it and considering its recommendations.”