One of the Most Reckless Cops in the City Works at Park Slope’s 78th Precinct

This car parked in an "NYPD-only" space at the 78th Precinct station house in Park Slope has 53 speeding tickets and five red light tickets since mid-2017. Photo: Gersh Kuntzman
This car parked in an "NYPD-only" space at the 78th Precinct station house in Park Slope has 53 speeding tickets and five red light tickets since mid-2017. Photo: Gersh Kuntzman

Meet the new poster boy — worse than the old poster boy!

Someone assigned to the 78th Precinct in Park Slope has been slapped with 75 tickets on his personal vehicle — including 53 speeding tickets and five red-light tickets — since March, 2017. So far, this is the single worst driver that Streetsblog has uncovered in its weeklong investigation into recklessly driving cops — surpassing last week’s story about a 23rd Precinct officer caught 41 times for speeding or running red lights.

The list of this driver’s crimes is so long that it may break the internet, but here goes (story continues after this stunning graphic).

These are all the summonses registered to the 78th Precinct employee's car. Source: Howsmydrivingny
These are all the summonses registered to the 78th Precinct employee’s car. Source: Howsmydrivingny

So who is this driver? All we know is that this car — a Dodge Caravan — is regularly parked in “NYPD-only” parking outside the Sixth Avenue station house in Park Slope. Every indication suggests that this is a police officer: For one thing, some of the tickets have been dismissed by judges under the coding “Admin Claim Granted,” a suggestion that the officer testified that his reckless driving was in the line of duty (in a Dodge Caravan?). But the driver was ordered to pay 28 of his 53 speeding tickets and three of his five red-light tickets.

The Dodge Caravan in question.
The Dodge Caravan in question.

But only one of the moving violations on this cop’s record was committed within the confines of the 78th Precinct, so if his speeding or running red lights was in the line of duty, his duty takes him far from his command post.

Still, even if some of the speeding was related to police work (again, in a Dodge Caravan?), the list of this 78th Precinct official’s transgressions is so long as to render any claim of professionalism moot.

For instance, just take a gander at the full list of his 53 moving violations. Note that many of them occur on the same day (in fact, he or she had several three-ticket days):

2017

  • July 20: Red light ticket in Staten Island
  • July 26: Speeding ticket on Kings Highway in Brooklyn
  • Aug. 14: Speeding ticket on W. Fordham Road in the Bronx
  • Sept. 11: Speeding ticket on Cropsey Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Sept. 13: Speeding ticket on Kings Hwy in Brooklyn
  • Sept. 22: Red light ticket on Classon Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Sept. 25: Speeding ticket on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Sept. 26: Speeding ticket on Cropsey Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Sept. 26: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Sept. 27: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Sept. 28: Speeding ticket on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 4: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 4: Speeding ticket on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 5: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Oct 6: Red light ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 10: Speeding ticket on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 10: Speeding ticket on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 12: Speeding ticket on Utica Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 12: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 16: Speeding ticket on Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 20: Speeding ticket on Bay Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 24: Speeding ticket on Kings Highway in Brooklyn
  • Oct. 24: Speeding ticket on Kings Highway in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 8: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 8: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 10: Speeding ticket on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 15: Speeding ticket on Kings Highway in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 17: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 17: Speeding ticket on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 22: Speeding ticket on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 28:: Speeding ticket on Park Avenue in Brooklyn

2018

  • Jan. 31: Speeding ticket on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn
  • March 5: Speeding ticket on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn
  • March 22: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn
  • May 17: Speeding ticket on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn
  • May 29: Speeding ticket on Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn
  • June 1: Speeding ticket on Fourth Avenue in Sunset Park in Brooklyn
  • June 14: Red light ticket on Remsen Avenue in Brooklyn
  • June 20: Speeding ticket on Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn
  • July 10: Speeding ticket on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Sept. 12: Speeding ticket on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn
  • Sept. 17: Speeding ticket on Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 7: Speeding ticket at Flatlands Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 8: Speeding ticket on Pennsylvania Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 27: Speeding ticket on Kings Highway in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 27: Speeding ticket on Coney Island Avenue in Brookly
  • Nov. 28: Speeding ticket on Linden Boulevard in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 28: Speeding ticket on Flatbush Avenue Extension in Brooklyn
  • Nov. 28: Speeding ticket on Kings Highway in Brooklyn
  • Dec. 3: Speeding ticket on Ocean Parkway in Brooklyn

2019

  • Jan. 2: Speeding ticket on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Jan. 2: Speeding ticket on Kings Highway in Brooklyn
  • Jan. 9: Speeding ticket on 65th Street in Brooklyn
  • Jan. 14: Speeding ticket on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn
  • Jan. 15: Speeding ticket in the Bronx.
  • Feb. 12: Speeding ticket at undisclosed location in Brooklyn.
  • Feb. 28: Speeding ticket at undisclosed location in Brooklyn.

Council Member Brad Lander has written legislation that would allow authorities to impound vehicle with five or more moving violations in a 12-month period. If that bill was law, this vehicle could have been booted for most of the last two years.

Lander told Streetsblog that police officers’ or NYPD employees’ cars would not be exempt under that legislation.

“From what you’ve captured … the average car parked at an NYPD precinct is a much more reckless driver than the average New Yorker. That’s disturbing all by itself,” said Lander. “These are people who have a responsibility for keeping our streets safe and that includes from traffic fatalities as well as from other crimes.”

It’s not just this one officer, of course. One day last week, we collected the license plate numbers of all cars parked in “NYPD-only” spaces, or parked illegally with NYPD-issued placards near the 78th Precinct station house and ran those 89 plates through Howsmydrivingny, the camera and parking violation database, and found:

  • 67 police officers’ cars — or 75 percent — had been ticketed for some infraction.
  • 54 of the cars — 60 percent — had been flagged for a serious moving violation, such as a red light ticket or speeding.
  • 37 cars — or 41.5 percent — had multiple tickets for serious moving violations.

Those numbers are worse than the overall count that Streetsblog has registered after two weeks of running cop vehicles’ plates. In a dozen precincts, the results are almost as shocking:

In all, we have run the plates on 803 personal vehicles of police officers and other NYPD employees and discovered:

  • 619 of the vehicles — or 77 percent — had at least one ticket.
  • 471 vehicles — or 58 percent — had at least one serious moving violation, such as a red light or a speeding ticket.
  • 300 vehicles — or 37 percent — had repeat serious violations.

With Ben Verde and Julianne Cuba

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