{"id":231018,"date":"2026-05-14T04:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/231018\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T04:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T04:35:09","slug":"staten-islanders-describe-alarming-encounters-with-super-speeding-cop-james-giovansanti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/231018\/","title":{"rendered":"Staten Islanders Describe Alarming Encounters with Super-Speeding Cop James Giovansanti"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Giovansanti \u2014 the NYPD cop who accrued<\/a> 547 speeding and red-light tickets since early 2022 \u2014 earned a reputation as a deadly driver long before Streetsblog revealed him as one of New York City\u2019s worst speeders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was like, holy shit, this truck could hit me at any second,\u201d one Staten Islander said of their run-in with Giovansanti and his two-ton RAM 1500. The cop \u201cnearly hit me when I had the right of way to cross,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n

Borough residents said they directly witnessed Giovansanti use his pickup truck to speed, tailgate, cut off other drivers, blow red lights and menace pedestrians. Their testimonies lend additional weight to Giovansanti\u2019s titanic speeding record and intensify pressure<\/a> on the NYPD to intervene before their own officer kills or injures someone.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tRecommended<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n \t\"Staten
\n \t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Some of these New Yorkers described their run-ins with Giovansanti on social media. \u201cHave you seen how he actually drives?\u201d wrote<\/a> @Mrbatz26 on the Staten Island subreddit. \u201cTotal jerkoff cutting people off left and right and tailgating like a mother fucker can\u2019t forget that jerkoff face.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen this guy haul ass on Richmond Terrace blowing lights,\u201d another Reddit user, @ToughCelebration3705, added<\/a> on the same thread. <\/p>\n

\u201cHaul ass\u201d is a colorful idiom that means to move very quickly \u2014 that is, to break the speed limit. \u201cBlowing lights\u201d means disobeying red traffic lights, an act that immediately places nearby drivers and pedestrians in mortal danger.<\/p>\n

Neither @Mrbatz26 nor @ToughCelebration3705 responded to multiple requests for comment. But Streetsblog found two other Staten Islanders who were willing to speak with us on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n

\u201cNearly hit me\u201d<\/p>\n

One resident, whom we will call Sam, told Streetsblog that they encountered Giovansanti on two separate occasions earlier this year \u2014 the first time as a pedestrian in Port Richmond, and the second time as a driver in Westerleigh.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn January or February, I was crossing on foot at Forest Avenue and Willowbrook Road and [Giovansanti] ignored the light and nearly hit me when I had the right of way to cross,\u201d they told Streetsblog.<\/p>\n

Three weeks later, Sam ran into Giovansanti again while driving near Forest and Jewett Avenues. \u201cHe nearly hit my car while I was also driving, and when I used the horn, he put his hands up like he was frustrated,\u201d they said. \u201c[Our] cars were parallel and he tried to pass when it\u2019s a single lane in each direction. Something like half of his car was in the wrong lane.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second resident, whom we will call Alex, said they confronted Giovansanti over his driving behavior either last summer or the summer prior, after he nearly ran them over in St. George.<\/p>\n

Alex told Streetsblog that they were trying to walk across Richmond Terrace at Hamilton Avenue \u2014 the same block as the 120th Precinct\u2019s station house \u2014 when they witnessed Giovansanti perform a U-turn at high speed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had just stepped into the crosswalk, and I saw this man in his very big white truck come very fast toward the light in the right lane,\u201d they told Streetsblog. \u201cAnd without hesitation, just barreling through the intersection, making a wide left U-turn from the right lane, out of nowhere, very, very fast \u2014 so much so that it startled me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alex continued:<\/p>\n

I jumped up and sort of darted myself forward because my physical instinct kicked in where I was like, holy shit, this truck could hit me at any second. And I got a good look at the truck as it whipped around me.<\/p>\n

It shook me. And then later that day, I was in my car coming home from the grocery store and approaching the same intersection where I had crossed earlier that day. And I noticed [Giovansanti\u2019s] truck parked on the side of the street, next to the stadium<\/a>, with his windows down. <\/p>\n

He was sitting in the truck. And I called out to him. I was pissed off, and I sort of hollered out to him: Hey, you nearly hit me earlier when you came through the intersection making that U-turn [and] basically four moving violations. <\/p>\n

And he said, what?<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if [he] didn\u2019t hear me or [he] didn\u2019t understand or whatever, but I repeated it. I was like, you almost hit me earlier when you flew around this U-turn from the right lane there. <\/p>\n

I honestly don\u2019t remember what exactly he said to me, but he immediately dismissed me \u2014 you know, whatever, buzz off, get out of here. He made a face like he didn\u2019t know what I was talking about.<\/p>\n

I was so pissed off. The light was green, I wanted to get out of there. I am not a terribly confrontational person \u2014 but I can be, and I just felt like I wanted to say something. But I immediately remembered that, you know, given [his] judgment that I had seen earlier in the day with the driving and the recklessness, that this was not someone I wanted to get into an altercation with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And so I kind of scared myself off. I probably shouldn\u2019t have said anything \u2014 because what else would this person think to do? When I read your piece, I immediately recognized him and the truck and I remembered that day.<\/p>\n

Alex lives in St. George. They said that drivers, many of whom are cops, routinely flout traffic laws in the vicinity of the NYPD station house on Richmond Terrace \u2014 but Giovansanti still stood out because he was driving at such a high speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI watch people do insane things at this intersection all the time,\u201d they said. \u201cJust going through the red light, making U-turns. A lot of [cops] in the 120th precinct make the U-turn and go through red lights at this intersection.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that is not unusual,\u201d they continued. \u201cI don\u2019t think I would have reacted if I had seen that, because I see that all the time. It was the fact that [Giovansanti] did it, going as fast as he was, in the right lane, and made a U-turn from the right lane into the intersection to turn around toward the precinct.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NYPD\u2019s moment of truth<\/p>\n

The above accounts add to a growing body of evidence against Officer Giovansanti. They also demonstrate the NYPD\u2019s institutional apathy<\/a> toward reckless drivers among their ranks. It is increasingly difficult to believe that nobody within the police department was aware \u2014 or even suspected \u2014 that Giovansanti was endangering New Yorkers.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s indifference is especially visible at the 120th Precinct, which is overseen by Inspector Eric Waldhelm. In March, Streetsblog documented<\/a> how the vast majority of personal vehicles parked in and around the station house\u2019s parking lot had received tickets for speeding or ignoring red lights. <\/p>\n

\t\t\tRecommended<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n \t\"March
\n \t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Mayor Mamdani ran on a platform of street safety and police reform. Yet more than five months after his inauguration, NYPD officers continue to block sidewalks outside of station houses and refuse to ticket illegally parked cars, while their leaders at 1 Police Plaza yawn and prevaricate about the lethal behavior of officers like Giovansanti.<\/p>\n

Giovansanti\u2019s current status within the police department is unclear. An NYPD spokesperson previously told<\/a> Streetsblog that his speeding tickets were unrelated to his duties as a cop, and more recently told<\/a> the New York Times that his tickets were (in the paper\u2019s words) \u201cunder internal review.\u201d <\/p>\n

At a press conference in April, Mamdani said<\/a> Giovansanti\u2019s record was \u201cunacceptable\u201d but has not commented on it since.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for Mamdani and the NYPD haven\u2019t returned a single email about Giovansanti in the past three weeks. They didn\u2019t answer questions for this story, either.<\/p>\n

If you have any information about Giovansanti or the situation within the NYPD, please get in touch<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Giovansanti \u2014 the NYPD cop who accrued 547 speeding and red-light tickets since early 2022 \u2014 earned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,52479,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-231018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-promoted","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}