Patch that makes the newrelic-daemon to run as the user newrelic-php instead of root. It works only on Debian or Debian based distros. You can find more information on the following link https://discuss.newrelic.com/t/daemon-running-as-root/16651/7.

newrelic-daemon.patch

--- original/etc/init.d/newrelic-daemon	2015-11-07 18:52:55.441693757 +0200
+++ edited/etc/init.d/newrelic-daemon	2015-11-07 20:13:17.994378592 +0200
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin
 LABEL=newrelic-daemon
 NAME=newrelic-daemon
+USER=newrelic-php
 DESC="New Relic Daemon"
 
 id=`id -u 2> /dev/null`
@@ -82,9 +83,13 @@
 pidarg=
 if [ -z "${pidfile}" ]; then
   if [ -d /var/run ]; then
-    pidfile=/var/run/newrelic-daemon.pid
+    mkdir -p /var/run/$USER    
+    chown $USER:$USER /var/run/$USER
+    pidfile=/var/run/$USER/newrelic-daemon.pid
   elif [ -d /var/pid ]; then
-    pidfile=/var/pid/newrelic-daemon.pid
+    mkdir -p /var/pid/$USER    
+    chown $USER:$USER /var/pid/$USER
+    pidfile=/var/pid/$USER/newrelic-daemon.pid
   fi
   if [ -n "${pidfile}" ]; then
     pidarg=" --pidfile ${pidfile}"
@@ -208,7 +213,7 @@
   fi
 
   RETVAL=0
-  "${nrdaemon}" ${nrdaemonopts} || RETVAL=1
+  start-stop-daemon --oknodo --start --name $NAME --chuid $USER --pidfile $pidfile --exec $nrdaemon -- $nrdaemonopts || RETVAL=1
   sleep 1
   if [ "x${RETVAL}" = "x0" ]; then
     if running ; then
@@ -229,8 +234,8 @@
     if [ -z "${NR_SILENT}" -a -z "${SILENT}" ]; then
       log_begin_msg "Stopping $DESC: $NAME"
     fi
-    force_stop
-    RETVAL=$?
+    RETVAL=0
+    start-stop-daemon --oknodo --stop --name $NAME --pidfile $pidfile --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 || RETVAL=1
     if [ -z "${NR_SILENT}" -a -z "${SILENT}" ]; then
       log_end_msg $RETVAL
     fi