To Protect and Swerve: NYPD Cop Has 547 Speeding Tickets
by greedo on 4/23/2026, 3:08:54 PM
Comments
by: robhlt
The Dangerous Vehicle Abatement Program was meant to deal with drivers like this, but it was allowed to expire in 2023 after the NYC DOT failed to actually implement it.<p>The program allowed the DOT to make drivers with more than 15 speed camera or 5 red light camera tickets in a year to take a safe driving course or have their car siezed. The DOT only took action against a small fraction of eligible offenders however.<p>More: <a href="https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/09/22/analysis-dangerous-vehicle-abatement-program-is-a-failure-by-all-measures" rel="nofollow">https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2023/09/22/analysis-dangerous-ve...</a>
4/23/2026, 4:48:49 PM
by: raybb
That's absolutely horrifying...<p>Relatively small increases in speed dramatically increase the stopping distance and as such the danger of driving. Especially with a huge truck like that. That's why Amsterdam (with much more food traffic) has recently reduced speed limits a lot.<p>> At 30km/h, the stopping distance of a car is 13 metres. At 50km/h it’s more than double at 27 metres. That 20km/h reduction is the crucial difference between a pedestrian or cyclist surviving the impact of an accident – at 30km/h it’s estimated that 95 per cent of pedestrians would emerge relatively unscathed.<p><a href="https://www.intertraffic.com/news/road-safety/amsterdam-30-speed-limit" rel="nofollow">https://www.intertraffic.com/news/road-safety/amsterdam-30-s...</a>
4/23/2026, 4:21:58 PM
by: xnx
I guess I'm most surprised that there are any NYC cops who don't deface their plates: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/17/nyregion/license-plate-vigilantes.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/17/nyregion/license-plate-vi...</a>
4/23/2026, 4:24:16 PM
by: BobBagwill
If you can't arrest the human, arrest the vehicle. The vehicle is obviously guilty, and is not protected by the right to confront its accusers, which are also machines.<p>Of course, with the advent of AI-enhanced surveillance and "smart" cars, we have have to have a separate traffic court for machines.<p>Then snowflake SJW machine-huggers will demand a machine Bill of Rights ...<p>Nevermind. ;-)
4/23/2026, 4:40:12 PM
by: archonis
Looks like they found the one cop on the force who doesn't obscure the license plate of their private vehicle.
4/23/2026, 4:26:03 PM
by: nkrisc
> 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.”<p>This angers me. Police officers are granted special privileges that ordinary citizens are not, and should be held to higher standards of conduct both on the job and off. In a just world, police officers would be exemplar citizens while wearing the uniform and while not. If they are not, how can we trust them to wield special privileges and authority over us?
4/23/2026, 5:22:45 PM
by: thatmf
> James Giovansanti lives and works on Staten Island.<p>ya don't say<p>(sincerely, ex-resident)
4/23/2026, 3:31:43 PM
by: haritha-j
I don't understand, doesn't NY have a points system for driving licenses? In most places you could speed at most half a dozen times before you lose your license.
4/23/2026, 3:56:46 PM
by: A_D_E_P_T
> <i>527 since January 2022</i><p>That's more than two a week, every week!
4/23/2026, 3:50:19 PM
by: iso1631
> 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<p>In the UK speeding tickets get you 3 points (or more if you're really over like 50+ in a 30).<p>Get 12 points in a 3 year period and you are banned from driving.<p>I thought that the US had something similar for "moving violations" (rather than say parking).<p>Is the penalty for ignoring the law seriously just a fine (i.e. if you're rich you aren't affected)?
4/23/2026, 3:52:10 PM
by: Teever
The solution is pretty straight forward.<p>Fine should be scaled to your income and have an escalating multiplier for reoffense within the same category of offense with a cool down period of a few years if they don't break the law.<p>I've brought this up many times online and people usually reply with something like "lots of people who have no income on paper but are wealthy speed" and a recent solution that I've seen posted is to scale the fine to the value of the vehicle.<p>Quite often fines are a pretty limp and ineffective way of modulating an individual's behaviour which is ultimately a choice by society.<p>We can make a better choice there to induce the behaviour that we want from antisocial people.
4/23/2026, 3:49:55 PM
by: wisemanwillhear
[dead]
4/23/2026, 3:28:52 PM
by: tantalor
What is the point of this article?<p>> Like all drivers in New York State, Giovansanti is immune to consequences as long as he pays the $50 tickets<p>So he's allowed to do this. Why are we talking about it?
4/23/2026, 4:09:42 PM
by: lasky
No doubt police should not be above the law and we should call that out.<p>However this article reads more like hyperbolic slander.
4/23/2026, 3:47:48 PM
by: newsy888
Universal surveillance at its most terrifying
4/23/2026, 3:53:27 PM
by: nslsm
Has he ever hit something or someone? If the answer is no, then speeding laws are too strict and must change.
4/23/2026, 3:33:56 PM
by: branon
They went to the guy's house, workplace? Followed him and took pictures?<p>This article reads like a Kiwi Farms thread. Just saying. I'm not a fan of what they do, but that's what came to mind. And when people do undesirable things, documenting them for public awareness is important. But how deep is too deep when it comes to freelance investigative journalism of this type?<p>e: critically I'm _agreeing_ that the reporting is important, and I'm not passing judgement either way here, only making a comparison and posing a question
4/23/2026, 3:53:05 PM