Daniel Pantaleo, the NYPD officer who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold a year ago this week, who has been stripped of his gun and shield and is working a desk job, wants to be a cop again, his lawyer told the New York Daily News.

Pantaleo has reportedly received so many death threats that he is protected by a police detail. In December, a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo, who settled two earlier civil rights lawsuits. A Justice Department investigation is ongoing.

“They have to prove my client had a specific intent to deprive Eric Garner of a federally protected constitutional right,” Stuart London, his lawyer, told the Daily News. “Based on all the pertinent information I have, they don’t reach that threshold in this case.”

“The unbelievable part is this has not soured him one bit on doing law enforcement,” London said. “It hasn’t diminished his desire to help the citizens of this city.”

Elsewhere, the Daily News reports that arrests in Staten Island’s 120th Precinct, where Pantaleo choked Garner, are down 26 percent in the 50 weeks since Garner’s death. Misdemeanor arrests are down 31 percent.

Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.