Meet the “Young Gun” cop who couldn’t pack his piece straight.

A retired New York City police detective running for Congress on Long Island was disciplined by the NYPD for leaving his gun unattended in a car and working as a DJ without police department permission, the Daily News has learned.

Anthony D’Esposito, a Republican, is vying to fill the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. Kathleen Rice, who announced earlier this year she would not seek re-election. His main opponent is Laura Gillen, a Democrat and former Town of Hempstead supervisor.

The former cop has made law and order a centerpiece of his campaign and was named a “Young Gun” by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, according to his campaign website.

But according to NYPD records obtained by The News, D’Esposito struggled to follow the department’s own internal rules on more than one occasion.

In 2015, the former detective in Brownsville’s 73rd Precinct “failed to safeguard” his department-issued firearm, which was stolen from a vehicle he left it in.

D’Esposito was later found guilty of failing to secure the gun and forced to forfeit 20 vacation days as a result, records show.

D’Esposito’s running against Laura Gillen, pictured, a Democrat and the former Town of Hempstead supervisor.

That wasn’t the only internal NYPD probe he was subjected to, though.

A separate investigation that began in May 2007 resulted in him being docked 15 vacation days for his extracurricular activities.

D’Esposito was serving in the 73rd Precinct at that time, and according to the probe, he got into hot water for “wrongfully engag[ing] in conduct prejudicial to the good order, efficiency or discipline of the department,” NYPD records show.

An internal report noted that he “wrongfully” worked as a disc jockey and served booze at an establishment licensed by the New York State Liquor Authority “without authority or permission to do so.”

According to the records, D’Esposito acknowledged his guilt on both occasions.

Mike Deery, a spokesman for D’Esposito’s campaign, said the former cop’s gun was locked up in a safe bolted to the inside of his vehicle, and that the safe itself was stolen from the vehicle. D’Esposito is the former chief of the Island Park Fire Department. Deery did not immediately comment on the other disciplinary charge.

“Just as many residents have fallen prey to dangerous criminals, Detective D’Esposito had his police firearm stolen from a gun safe that was bolted to the chassis of the vehicle he used as the volunteer Chief of the Island Park Fire Department,” Deery said.

D’Esposito retired from the NYPD in July 2020, according to a department spokesperson. Deery said he joined the NYPD in 2006.

And while he has touted his more than a decade of experience in law enforcement, he — not surprisingly — has refrained from discussing the internal discipline he faced during his police career.

“As an NYPD detective, I made over 600 arrests working the toughest neighborhoods in America — that makes me an expert,” he said in a recent campaign ad. “You wanna fight crime, elect an expert.”

Rep. Kathleen Rice, D-N.Y., talks to reporters in the basement of the Capitol in Washington, Nov. 15, 2018. Rep. Rice announced earlier this year she would not seek re-election.

Gillen suggested in a statement to The News that such a claim is laughable in light of his past internal violations.

“Who leaves a loaded gun in an unlocked car, unattended, for a criminal to steal?” she said. “D’Esposito is proclaiming himself to be an ‘expert’ on crime, yet he can’t even keep his own gun out of the hands of a criminal.”

Gillen went on to tar her rival’s conduct as “reckless,” saying it “makes it clear that he does not take gun safety seriously and would be just another extreme Republican who votes with the NRA and against common sense gun safety laws.”

Deery accused Gillen of “attempting to smear the name of men and women of law enforcement who protect our lives and property.”

“It’s not surprising that Laura Gillen would attack a brave member of the law enforcement community,” Deery said. “Now we know why virtually every law enforcement organization has backed Anthony D’Esposito.”

Michael Gartland

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