The “second-most-reckless driver in the city” racked up 547 camera-issued red light and speeding tickets since 2002 before being exposed by Streetsblog NYC in April.
James Giovansanti raced his 2½ ton pickup truck through the same school zones and traffic lights on Staten Island, at the same times, at least every other day, on his way to and from work. Instead of posting a patrol car at one of these intersections to catch this reckless driver, and give him enough tickets to suspend his license, the NYPD is instead dealing with a PR crisis.
Giovansanti, you see, is a cop and his depraved indifference to pedestrian safety lays bare the crime scandal that the press rarely talks about: that the NYPD have virtually stopped enforcing traffic laws.
NYPD data shows that tickets for moving violations have declined dramatically over the past decade. Citywide, cops wrote 32% fewer traffic tickets in 2025 than they had in 2015. Staten Island cops, not surprisingly, have shirked their duty to the extent of a 52% decline. Apologists will point to short staffing and the prevalence of red light cameras as a justification for police inaction, but it’s clear that pedestrian safety is simply not a priority for the NYPD.
Not that long ago, traffic enforcement used to be handled by an entirely separate unit devoted to the task. Agents wore brown uniforms, reported to the Department of Transportation and were represented by the civilian Communications Workers of America. But in 1996, Rudy Giuliani merged the 1,400-member unit into the NYPD. No longer called “brownies,” the traffic enforcement agents now wear blue NYPD uniforms, but are not sworn officers and can only write parking tickets.
Two decades later, after many Giuliani-era tactics were ruled unconstitutional, and voters embraced Bill de Blasio’s mild promises of police reform, the police unions protested with a shocking campaign of dereliction. By the end of de Blasio’s first year, the NYPD issued 94% fewer tickets than the year before. Although the police unions eventually ended that explicit job action, ticket rates remain dangerously low.
With little fear of getting a ticket, many drivers ignore traffic laws and endanger pedestrians. I see this on a daily basis on Staten Island, when I walk my two little girls to their elementary school. Parents roll through crosswalks and stop signs across the street from the school, on the way to dropping their own kids off. Doctors and nurses speed down our side streets to get to their job at the local hospital. Car culture can turn the mildest Dr. Jekyll into a dangerous Mr. Hyde.
Numerous studies show that ticketed drivers go slower and more cautiously in the months that follow, resulting in fewer car accidents. Intersections that gain a reputation as “ticket magnets” also become safer. “Liberal nonsense garbage” cops anonymously complain about the Giovansanti controversy on an “unofficial NYPD podcast.” This is a culture that can’t be fixed. Beat cops don’t want to enforce traffic laws because they don’t agree with them.
Mayor Mamdani’s recent announcement canceling 580 new NYPD hires kept in place the additional NYPD funding. New Yorkers deserve a traffic enforcement agency that takes public safety seriously. Mamdani should use some of that money to bring back DOT brownies who will follow the law.
[Originally published at New York Daily News.]