New York’s Fined-est: Meet the Reckless Cops With Thousands in Tickets

A single unmarked car an NYPD unit linked to the agency’s history of aggressive police chases has been nabbed by city speeding cameras hundreds of times over the past three years — but the reckless driving done by cops in that vehicle was not claimed to be part of any police “emergency.”

The unmarked grey Subaru belonging to the department’s controversial Community Response Team has almost $38,000 in unpaid speed and red-light camera tickets — and the NYPD never got those tickets dismissed under rules that allow for police vehicles to be driven recklessly if there is “necessary” police action.

Typically, the NYPD files paperwork with the Department of Finance to avoid such sizable tabs on unmarked cars. They can get tickets dismissed if a commanding officer can prove that the lawlessness was justified by “urgent” or even “necessary” police action.

Commanders consult dispatch records and other sources to present this “Valid Verifiable Defense” — and if they can’t document a need for speed, the officer who was driving recklessly is supposed to pay the fine.

But that’s not happening when it comes to this vehicle — which has been caught speeding in school zones by cameras 406 times and running red lights 24 times since Aug. 23, 2023.

Either the NYPD hasn’t filed the exculpatory paperwork for hundreds of tickets or the Department of Finance hasn’t processed it — but either way, officers have neither been cleared nor held accountable. As a result, reckless driving by multiple members of the Community Response Team has continued ticket by ticket with no oversight from anyone.

How reckless is the driving by this unit? Between April 19 and May 31, the car was caught on camera 16 times speeding through school zones, mostly in The Bronx. That 16th ticket on May 31 is noteworthy, as it is the threshold for reckless members of the public to be ordered to install a speed-limiting device inside their cars under the state’s Stop Super Speeder law that will go into effect next year.

Under the law, drivers have 365 days to accumulate so many tickets. These cops reached the ignoble threshold in 42.

And the data show that the Community Response Team is on pace to receive even more tickets on this car this year than the 144 it got last year.

Streetsblog got a sample of the unit’s reckless driving on Tuesday, watching Community Response Team Lt. Joseph Algerio get into the car with two of his officers — then run a red light at the busy intersection of W. 30th Street and Sixth Avenue without deploying the emergency lights or sirens that would have justified, at least on paper, the dangerous maneuver.

This specific vehicle was parked for at least nine hour next to a fire hydrant down the block from the department’s Citywide Traffic Task Force last Tuesday. Streetsblog watched five traffic agents pass the vehicle during that time without writing a ticket.

That’s not how the system is supposed to work. The NYPD’s patrol guide makes clear that officers are never permitted to park illegally (beyond, that is, their precinct’s “self-enforcement zone”) unless they are on necessary police business. The guide specifically states that parking in a fire zone is “NOT eligible for a ‘Valid Verifiable Defense.'”

What does the NYPD say?

The NYPD has offered verifiable defenses for a small portion of the tickets issued to the car, which the NYPD started leasing in 2023. About $4,000 of the $38,000 in fines have been paid or dismissed, city records show — an indication that a system is in place, and being followed, to get tickets dismissed when the reckless driving is deemed a necessary part of police work.

But on Tuesday, an NYPD spokesperson, who declined to provide a name, told Streetsblog that the department “has answered the majority of the summonses” issued to the car, which does not appear to be accurate. The spokesperson added that the NYPD “is in conversation” with the Department of Finance regarding the remaining summonses.

It is unclear what the conversation is about; the Department of Finance did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The cops in question are just the latest members of the so-called New York’s Finest to stain the badge with driving that endangers residents.

Earlier this year, Streetsblog uncovered that a Staten Island cop was the city’s second-most-reckless driver, with a personal vehicle tied to him receiving 547 red light tickets in just the borough.

The NYPD has refused to answer Streetsblog’s questions about the officer and his off-duty lawlessness despite complaints from local residents.

Unlike that officer, who was ticketed in his personal truck along his normal commute route, the unmarked vehicle identified by Streetsblog in this story is part of the police fleet and has been ticketed all over the city.

It’s a window into the aggressive tactics of a secretive unit created under former mayor Eric Adams to pursue his public safety interests, like cracking down on pot shops and illegal motorbikes. At one point, Adams reportedly had access to a livestream of the unit’s body-worn cameras.

The unit was central to the department’s aggressive police pursuits, a practice Commissioner Jessica Tisch ended shortly after taking office. And the unit’s violent tactics on the street were sometimes caught on video: In one instance, a supervisor kicked a driver in the head; in another, a supervisor slammed a man into a car window.

Experts and civil rights groups have criticized the unit’s for bringing back the NYPD’s widespread stop-and-frisk strategies. A federal monitor report last year found that the unit “stopped, frisked, and searched individuals unlawfully at higher rates than patrol officers.” 97 percent of the people stopped and frisked by the unit were Black and Hispanic men.

The Community Response Team was back in the headlines earlier this month when the attorney general announced that an officer who hit a motorcyclist while trying to use his car to force him off the road broke department policy. The attorney general did not find enough evidence to bring criminal charges.

But the attorney general’s investigation seemingly hasn’t deterred the drivers of this one vehicle from breaking the law.