![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Parking-Madness-2026-final-4-bracket.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLike the NCAA, our Final Four bracket is set in this year\u2019s March (Parking) Madness competition. Unlike in year\u2019s past, however, we are confining this year\u2019s analysis of police parking misconduct solely to Staten Island, where, fortunately, there are just four precincts. Here\u2019s how the battle shapes up:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
A lot has changed since the last time we did a Parking Madness contest (in 2023<\/a>) \u2014\u00a0most important, the NYPD received a sternly worded letter from the United States Department of Justice (once the most trusted name in departments of Justice) demanding that NYPD cops stop leaving their garbage cars in the way of pedestrians and in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.<\/p>\n Also since then, we have a new police commissioner who, say what you will, does seem to want cops to be more professional.<\/p>\n But how will all these developments affect the four commands in the city\u2019s suburban borough? Let\u2019s meet our competitors!<\/p>\n The 120th vs. the 123rd: The Blue-Gray Bowl<\/p>\n For this competition, we pit the northernmost precinct on Staten Island with the southernmost, hence our Civil War-themed subhead. Who will take this semi-final battle? Let\u2019s find out:<\/p>\n The 120th (St. George)<\/p>\n The most urban-like command on the island is, as we\u2019ve found in year\u2019s past, the most chaotic and messy. The station house itself faces Richmond Terrace, and is fronted by a line of combat-parked squad cars, plus a few high-ranking brass.<\/p>\n Compared to what we\u2019ve seen over the course of this competition, it wouldn\u2019t be that bad \u2026 except that the line of perpendicularly parked cars turns eastbound Richmond Terrace from a wide roadway with two lanes and a painted bike lane into a very narrow, single-lane roadway where cyclists are forced into the remaining lane (which, oddly, has a 30 mile-per-hour speed limit).<\/p>\n A sign indicates that car drivers can\u2019t make U-turns \u2026 unless they\u2019re cops. Above the law much?<\/p>\n Beyond that, parking spaces on both side streets adjacent to the station house \u2014 Wall Street and Hamilton Avenue \u2014 are completely full of parked officers\u2019 personal vehicles. On Wall Street, they\u2019re not illegally parked because signs indicate both sides of the street as \u201cNYPD Only\u201d parking, but on Hamilton, cops just park on the sidewalk with their handy placard.<\/p>\n The station house also has one of the longest stretches of \u201cNYPD Only\u201d parking we\u2019ve ever seen, stretching two avenue-length blocks near the Staten Island Ferry Hawks\u2019 minor league baseball stadium. Again, nothing illegal here, but the neighbors must be furious that all the parking is taken up by cops\u2019 personal cars. Also, many of the cops just put an old parking ticket on the dash with the number \u201c120\u201d scribbled on it.<\/p>\n Worse, Inspector Eric Waldhelm\u2019s cops are some of the worst drivers we\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n Of the 40 personal vehicles we spotted parked outside the station house either in official parking or illegally parked with a placard, all but two had been ticketed for speeding in school zones or running red lights. Of the 38 who had been ticketed by enforcement cameras, 33 had been slapped multiple times, including:<\/p>\n One cop with a fake placard who has 36 speeding tickets and four red-light tickets.<\/p>\n One cops with 47 speeding tickets and 10 red-light tickets.<\/p>\n One cop with 11 speeding tickets (and, illegally, no front plate).<\/p>\n One cops with 19 speeding tickets and five red-light tickets.<\/p>\n One cop with 25 speeding tickets.<\/p>\n Of the 40 cars, the average number of speed-camera and red-light tickets is 10. That\u2019s a disgrace \u2014\u00a0and a danger to the community. <\/p>\n 123rd Precinct (Tottenville)<\/p>\n Welcome to the sleepy town of Tottenville! The old station house is (aw, so cute) on Main Street, and there is virtually no \u201cNYPD Only\u201d parking to steal space from the neighbors.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no combat parking. <\/p>\n There\u2019s no illegal parking.<\/p>\n There\u2019s barely even any placard parking!<\/p>\n True, they took the screen door off the station house, but everything else is more or less as it should be. The worst we saw? One of Captain Kevin Russell\u2019s cops has 18 speeding tickets. <\/p>\n And one cop was parked illegally in the \u201cno standing\u201d zone, but he didn\u2019t have any tickets at all.<\/p>\n So who should advance? You have until Wednesday to vote:<\/p>\n The 121st vs. The 122nd: Will the real turkey stand up?<\/p>\n Now we have two mid-Island commands vying for a trip to the Big Dance. Let\u2019s meet the competitors:<\/p>\n The 121st (Graniteville)<\/p>\n Completed in 2013, this Rafael Vi\u00f1oly-designed<\/a>, aluminum-sheathed cantilever is the dream precinct. It\u2019s gorgeous, of course, but the architect clearly knew about police officers\u2019 egregious parking because there\u2019s literally nowhere to combat-park!<\/p>\n The entrance features a circular driveway that even the commanding officer, Captain Gzim Palaj, wouldn\u2019t park on. And it\u2019s so chill that some of the local fauna hang out (right).<\/p>\n Just as in Tottenville, if there is a parking transgression being committed by a 121st cop, we didn\u2019t see it (it\u2019s convenient that Vi\u00f1oly gave the cops a huge parking lot on the south side of the station house, hard by the Baron Hirsch Cemetery.<\/p>\n I spotted just two placard-parked cop cars along Richmond Avenue: One guy has 33 speeding tickets and 10 red-light tickets<\/a> (bad!) and the other has no speeding tickets since August 2023.<\/p>\n The only visible turkeys at this command are the ones on the driveway. Meanwhile\u2026<\/p>\n The 122nd (Grant City)<\/p>\n This standard-issue station house faces onto busy Hylan Boulevard, so there\u2019s no combat parking (though there is combat in the form of an American flag mural by notorious right-winger and speed-camera defacer Scott LoBaido<\/a> that has been on the front face of the building for at least a decade).<\/p>\n All of the egregious parking happens on Elmtree Avenue, which dead-ends at a garbage pit. That roadway is filled with officers\u2019 private cars combat-parked like other police facilities, even though the station house has a big parking lot in the back.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Main-beauty-shot-rotated.jpg\")
To paraphrase John Masefield, all I ask is a precinct house and a combat park to steer her by. (Click credit for full poem.)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cops-only.jpg\")
Why not just hang a sign that says, \u201cFuck you\u201d to all other drivers?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/120th-dyptich.jpg\")
All you need is a pen to park for free in Staten Island.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/main-beauty-shot-1-rotated.jpg\")
The 123rd.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/cop-in-no-standing-rotated.jpg\")
This is about the worst we saw in Tottenville.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/main-beauty-shot-2-rotated.jpg\")
A gorgeous station house.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/turkey-close-up.jpg\")
Yes, that\u2019s a wild turkey.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/122-from-front-rotated.jpg\")
Standard issue.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/dead-end-rotated.jpg\")
At least they\u2019re not blocking the neighbors.<\/p>\n