Former NYPD chief posts how officers give 'free pass' to favored drivers

Social media posts this week by John Chell, who recently retired as the New York Police Department's highest-ranking uniformed cop, seemed to acknowledge what some have long considered an open secret about the culture of America's largest police force: The NYPD sometimes gives a "free pass" based on who you are or who you know.

Chell, a cop for 30 years whose ultimate rank was chief of department, posted Wednesday on X about "something that has been a standing order for decades" regarding who does and doesn’t get traffic summonses in New York City.

"No Doctors, Nurses, teachers and other city agencies. Since I was the Chief of Dept -I altered this to add , Any friend of @sidrosenberg19 was a friend of ours - free pass for Sid’s friends. I did this because I could," Chell posted, referring to the WABC conservative talk radio host Sid Rosenberg, who is a booster of the NYPD and has dined with the police commissioner, Jessica Tisch.

Chell was responding to a thread begun by a driver who recounted having been pulled over by an NYPD cop who allegedly said he wasn't going to issue a summons because the driver was listening to Rosenberg. Chell's post triggered an uproar on social media, with some criticizing the practice and others defending it.

"The cop was being nice," Rosenberg posted to a critic. "Why does that bother you?" 

Through an unsigned statement, an NYPD spokesperson denied on Wednesday that such an order exists — or ever existed.

"There is absolutely no policy that prevents the NYPD from issuing summonses to city employees. The NYPD issues summonses for violations as they are observed by officers on patrol," the spokesperson said. Pressed, the spokesperson added: "There has never been a policy."

Chell on Thursday told Newsday he had just been joking.

"It was a complete and utter joke," said Chell, whom Tisch appointed to be chief of department in 2024. "These people are delusional, all the lefties."

Chell said there was never a standing order carving out exceptions. But, he said, cops have always had discretion over when to issue tickets. He did not say whether it’s legitimate to factor into that discretion someone’s job or friends.

Chell retired in October on a disability pension stemming from an ankle injury in July 2024 — after stepping into a grass-covered hole on Randalls Island in Manhattan during a police operation. He is collecting $295,000 per year, almost entirely tax free, for the rest of his life, according to The Daily News.

Allegations that the NYPD sometimes plays favorites when deciding whether to enforce parking and traffic laws have long dogged the department, facilitated by favor-seeking phone calls, phony placards, so-called courtesy cards issued by police labor unions and mini-shields given out to family members by cops.

The press office for Zohran Mamdani, who as mayor oversees the NYPD, did not return a message seeking comment.

In 2011, more than a dozen NYPD cops were accused of abusing their authority by helping friends and family skirt having to pay traffic tickets. The head of the police union at the time was outraged — that the cops were being charged.

"When did courtesy become a crime?" asked the union head, Patrick Lynch, for "something that has been a longstanding practice at all levels of the department."

The prosecutions resulted in the convictions of 15 officers, ProPublica reported. 

The city in 2024 paid a $175,000 settlement to a Staten Island cop who alleged he was punished for issuing traffic tickets to those who have connections to higher-ups of the NYPD. The department had retaliated against him, he claimed, for refusing to honor the courtesy cards.

That same year, the city’s Department of Investigation identified a related phenomenon in police culture familiar to anyone who's driven around courts, police stations, firehouses and even in Central Park: the NYPD consistently refusing to issue tickets to illegally parked private vehicles displaying placards, as well as work vests, fraudulent permits and other illegitimate items on the dashboards that supposedly identify government workers from myriad agencies.

Some of those who display the placards don't even work for those government agencies. The vehicles are parked on sidewalks; they block hydrants and can be seen in bus and bike lanes. 

Failing to police such illegal parking, the report said, is "a form of corruption that erodes the public trust in municipal government."

The Nassau and Suffolk police departments didn’t return messages seeking comment about their policies on these issues.