To Protect And Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets Yet Remains On The Force
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Is this public enemy #1?James Giovansanti lives and works on Staten Island. Since 2022, traffic cameras have caught his pickup truck blasting through school zones or running red lights more than 547 times in that one borough. He received 187 camera-issued tickets in 2025 alone — an average of one every other day.That record makes James Giovansanti the second-most-reckless driver in the city. Because he pilots a 4,800-pound RAM 1500 truck at more than 41 mph across the island, he poses a unique danger to himself and his neighbors. Ticket data show a pattern of dangerous driving in a wide arc from Pleasant Plains to Tompkinsville.And here’s what makes him a true enemy of the public: James Giovansanti is an officer in the New York City Police Department — the agency supposedly in charge of keeping New Yorkers out of harm’s way.NYPD officer James Giovansanti with his 120th Precinct colleagues in front of the Richmond Terrace station house. Photo: Gregory P. MangoOne policing expert said Giovansanti’s record indicates that he is “indifferent to public safety” — and even if he wasn’t driving every single time the truck was caught by a speed camera, he was clearly allowing someone else to drive his vehicle recklessly.The expert, former cop turned criminal justice professor Michael Alcazar, said Giovansanti should face “serious discipline.” But that’s not happening — an NYPD spokesperson shrugged off the suggestion of punishment because Giovansanti’s tickets are “not related to his job or his duties in the department.”Activists say that Giovansanti is a poster child for the urgency of passing the “Stop Super Speeders Act,” a pending bill in Albany that would force the worst repeat speeders to install a speed limiter in their vehicles. If such a law was already in place, Giovansanti’s truck would have been rendered unable to speed on Aug. 7, 2022, just months after he bought it.“We’re horrified that one driver is putting Staten Island in danger,” said Rose Uscianowski, who organizes for safer streets on the island with Transportation Alternatives. “We’re counting on Albany to [pass] the bill and finally slow down super speeders.
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We can’t afford to wait.”Reckless behaviorRecords show that James Giovansanti, 33, reserves the bulk of his speeding for the borough’s densely populated North Shore. A traffic camera on Richmond Avenue and Monsey Place — the same block as P.S. 22, an elementary school that enrolls more than 700 students — issued 25 speeding tickets to the truck. Another camera on Richmond Terrace and John Street ticketed the truck 50 times. A third camera on Richmond Terrace and Nicholas Avenue ticketed the truck 55 times. Those last two cameras are located just north of Port Richmond High School, which enrolls more than 1,500 teens.It wasn’t hard for Streetsblog to find the car on the street after observing Giovansanti’s driving patterns and ticket times from the city camera ticket database. We spotted it near the 120th Precinct one day, watched its driver exit and then enter the Richmond Terrace station house then emerge in uniform — with GIOVANSANTI on his NYPD uniform. Records show he’s been on the force since 2019.Giovansanti’s speeding is especially dangerous on Richmond Terrace, the seven-mile arterial road that bends around the North Shore. Most city streets impose a 25-mph speed limit (or lower), but Richmond Terrace still maintains a speed limit of 30 mph. When former Mayor Eric Adams implemented a “regional slow zone” that included a section of the thoroughfare, he exempted Richmond Terrace from a lower speed limit. A sign in front of the precinct reminds area residents that police can violate traffic rules.NYPD to neighbors: Look out.Under state law, a car must be traveling at 11 mph or more above the legal limit before a camera will issue a ticket. This means that, every time Giovansanti’s truck received a speeding ticket on Richmond Terrace, it was traveling at least 41 mph. A pedestrian struck by a car traveling 41 mph will be severely injured — and has only a 20-percent chance of surviving.Giovansanti’s choice of car dramatically heightens these risks.
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An unmodified 2022 RAM 1500 weighs at least 4,775 pounds, measures at least 77 inches tall, and features an enormous, boxy and flat-faced hood. This design limits the driver’s ability to see pedestrians and cyclists and makes it far more likely they will drag a crash victim beneath their car’s chassis instead of throwing them onto its hood.We could not determine whether Giovansanti has ever harmed someone by speeding. But the circumstantial evidence is not reassuring: The right side of his truck is visibly damaged, and he refused to answer a straightforward question about his collision history. Furthermore, the Department of Transportation reported in late December that city drivers who receive at least two moving violations tickets per year — including speeding and ignoring red lights — are 40 times more likely to cause a crash that results in death or serious injury than drivers who never receive a moving violation.And remember: Giovansanti received 116 tickets for moving violations in 2022, 127 tickets in 2023, 124 tickets in 2024, and 180 tickets in 2025. The DOT report (and graphic below) makes it clear that James Giovansanti is extremely likely to injure or kill someone.James Giovansanti’s record is literally off this chart. Chart: DOTIt gets worseStreetsblog became aware of Giovansanti’s record in early March, after Transportation Alternatives analyzed school-zone camera tickets issued through the end of 2025. The advocacy group published the license plates — but not the names — of the city’s 10 worst super speeders. Giovansanti’s current plate ranked sixth.We took the next logical step and tried to figure out who exactly is driving these cars. Using public records and old-fashioned shoe leather, we began to identify some of them. Most of the worst plates belonged to drivers who lack any kind of public profile or position of importance. The remainder belonged to out-of-state leasing companies. This includes the city’s worst speeder, whose car has racked up $63,744.23 in fines, mostly in a tight area of southern Brooklyn.
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We soon determined that Officer Giovansanti has owned the 2022 RAM 1500 since early 2022. It currently has the license plate LFC3742, but it had a different plate, KVJ5603, between January 2022 and October 2023.Over those 20 months, Giovansanti’s truck piled up 223 speeding tickets that cost him more than $15,000. As you can see in the map below, Giovansanti exhibited the same pattern on the first plate as he did the second: speeding throughout Staten Island, but especially on the North Shore.And here is a map that combines ticket data for both plates:This brings the total number of Giovansanti’s speeding tickets to a staggering 527 since January 2022, worth a total of $36,650.02 — which means that he would rank as the second-worst driver in the entire city.And remember: Those 527 tickets are only associated with his current pickup truck. It’s unclear whether he drove or owned any cars before 2022, and if so, how many speeding tickets he incurred while driving them.The finer details of Giovansanti’s record are alarming, too. He incurred 20 tickets for failing to stop at a red light — an act that is often far more dangerous than simply speeding. Four of those red-light tickets are timestamped within five minutes of a separate speeding ticket. For example, at 5:48 pm on Aug. 27, 2025, a traffic camera at Arlene Street and Sommer Avenue ticketed Giovansanti’s truck for speeding. A different camera spotted his truck blowing a red light at Richmond and Lander Avenues one minute later. This clearly suggests that Giovansanti sped through the red light — one of the deadliest maneuvers a driver could possibly commit.Furthermore, he prefers to speed late at night, between 11 pm and midnight — precisely when visibility is most limited and the danger of a deadly crash is highest. The number of American pedestrians killed by drivers at nighttime has surged since 2009.
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Four years ago, pro-car state legislators tried (and failed) to block the city from operating its traffic cameras around the clock.Certain days stand out as well. On Jan. 27, 2025, Giovansanti’s truck received four speeding tickets and fifth ticket for driving through a red light: at 9:01 am and 9:04 am then later at 10:51 pm, 10:52 pm and 11:01 pm — perhaps on his way in, and out, of work. Five weeks later, on March 4, he received another five speeding tickets in a similar 10-hour span between morning and night.No explanationGiovansanti poses a lethal threat to every driver, pedestrian and cyclist who crosses his path. This defies the entire purpose of the NYPD. The only reason it exists, according to its mission statement, is to protect New Yorkers, not repeatedly terrorize and endanger them.Indeed, his record is so disturbing and unbelievable that we asked both him and the NYPD if there was some sort of exonerating explanation. Maybe he used his car to respond to police calls? Or perhaps he had a relative or friend with a health condition that frequently required his immediate presence? Were we missing a crucial piece of context?No explanation ever came. Giovansanti did not respond to multiple emails, calls, and a letter left at his home on Staten Island. Among the questions he would not answer was: “While driving the RAM 1500, have you been involved in a collision with a car, pedestrian or cyclist?” (We can’t independently find that out because license plates are not in the city database of crashes for some reason.)When Streetsblog tried knocking on his door, a woman who did not identify herself poked her head out of the door and yelled: “Get away from my house before I call the cops! Right now. Get out of here. I am calling the cops on you.” When asked why, the woman continued: “Do not step on my property. You will be arrested.” She then slammed the door shut. Parked in Giovansanti’s driveway was another car that has received 69 speeding and red-light tickets since March 2022. The NYPD was only slightly more helpful.