Cop in NYPD Racks Up Over 500 Speeding Tickets
A New York City police officer has reportedly issued over 500 speeding tickets in his own district during the last four years. Interestingly, he also turned out to be one of the city’s most reckless drivers.
Officer James Giovansanti, who is 33, was caught on traffic cameras speeding and running red lights a staggering 187 times in just the previous year on Staten Island alone. This information surfaced in a report released recently.
Back in 2022, it was revealed that this officer accumulated an eye-popping 547 tickets within his precinct.
Giovansanti is known for driving his Ram pickup truck at high speeds through crowded areas in Staten Island’s North Shore. Data from ticket cameras showed two spots near Port Richmond High School recorded off-duty officers running red lights 105 times since 2022.
In most city areas, speed limits hover around 25 to 30 miles per hour, but it’s unclear just how fast he was going when snapped by the speeding cameras.
Giovansanti faced fines ranging from $50 to $176.12 for his various driving and parking violations, with a couple of exceptions in Brooklyn and Queens.
The total amount in fines reached $36,650.02, although it’s uncertain if he has paid the full sum.
In comparison, a different driver in Brooklyn, recognized as the city’s reckless driving champion, racked up an astonishing $63,744.23 in fines.
According to that report, city drivers who get two or more tickets each year are 40 times more likely to cause a fatal crash.
State Senator Andrew Gounardes commented that Giovansanti embodies the kind of “serial speeder” who should be held accountable under the Stop Super Speeder Act.
“Police officers are supposed to protect and serve, not speed and deviate. Their job is to keep us safe, so it’s unfortunate to see this police officer harming our neighbors,” Gounardes noted on social media.
The state lawmaker mentioned that such actions function similarly to a speed camera program—aimed at putting speed limiters on vehicles of drivers accumulating 16 or more speeding tickets in a single year.
The newspaper has reached out to the New York City Police Department for their take on this situation.
