In a classic case of practice-what-you-preach going horribly wrong, a New York Police Department officer’s private car has 547 speeding and red-light violation tickets linked to it, and he continues to have a driving license, handing out speeding tickets to offenders.
Traffic cameras across Staten Island have picked up officer James Giovansanti’s Ram 1500 pickup truck more than 500 times since 2022, and the total fine amount is worth over $36,000. In 2025, his Ram was picked up for 187 violations alone, accounting for almost one every day.
A vehicle committing nearly one traffic violation every day is a serious concern, leading to questions about whether Giovansanti has been driving his truck dangerously every day.
However, it is not confirmed that Giovansanti has been driving the truck himself, since traffic cameras pick up number plates and not the image of the driver. Still, a new ticket on a regular basis sounds like a matter to be investigated thoroughly.
Second-Worst Speeder in the Entire City
According to a report by Carscoops, there were several clusters around Staten Island where Giovansanti’s license plate was recorded by speed cameras, including dense residential areas and schools.
Notably, a speed camera records a violation in New York when a vehicle exceeds the speed limit by at least 11 mph.
The officer was contacted by NYCStreetsBlog for insights into the tickets being registered, but he has yet to respond.
A post on X by Streetsblog New York City claims that Giovansanti is the second-worst speeder in the city. The Streetsblog team tried to meet Giovansanti at the police station, but since he was not there, they went over to his house.
They left a letter at the doorstep after ringing the doorbell, but nobody opened the door. As a result, they waited across the road, only to notice a lady open the door for the letter.
When a person from the Streetsblog team crossed the road to talk to her, she immediately threatened to call the police if he stepped on her property, offering no reason to do so.
The footage then highlights the team getting in touch with Giovansanti on the phone, but the officer immediately hung up when the reporter, J.K. Trotter, introduced himself.
This raises serious questions about why an officer is not willing to even talk to a reporter. Does he know the kind of questions he would face? Quite possibly.
We went to Staten Island to track down New York City’s second-worst driver:
He’s an @NYPDnews officer who has been caught blasting through school zones or running red lights in his truck more than 547 times since 2022. pic.twitter.com/9DGkXJgIgr
— Streetsblog New York City (@StreetsblogNYC) April 23, 2026
In an interview with NY1, Trotter explained that due to the information not being available about who the Ram truck belonged to, he and his team figured out common areas where the truck would pass through frequently and get snapped by speed cameras.
Over the course of a few weeks, he was able to spot the truck and figure out that it belonged to Giovansanti. Speaking in the interview about law enforcement officers violating the rules themselves, especially at a time when incidents related to speeding remain high, Trotter said:
“Yeah, it’s heartbreaking in a way, and it’s a real breach of public trust that the people we entrust to exhibit a certain standard for how you’re supposed to conduct yourself in public life fell short in this way. And it is obviously, our report focused on this one officer, but in many ways it’s an issue that extends above him, both to his commanding officer, and I think it goes up to Commissioner Tisch in a certain way.
“We gave the NYPD dozens of opportunities to comment on this and they just refused to do so. It seems their position is that because he did this in his own private time, it does not bear at all upon his work as a cop or the NYPD as an organization.”