JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A school bus camera program that wrongfully issued countless $225 violation notices to Miami-Dade motorists is coming to Duval County.
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The cameras are supposed to capture footage of motorists who drive past stationary school buses with their “stop arm” extended, a violation of state law in most instances. Instead, the cameras fined many drivers who were following the law.
Miami-Dade’s sheriff suspended the program indefinitely last April after a joint Florida Trib and Miami Herald investigation discovered that police personnel who were supposed to review all violation notices and weed out those improperly issued were overwhelmed by the sheer volume – more than 400 a day.
Read previous Florida Trib reporting about BusPatrol at www.floridatrib.org/buspatrol.
Miami-Dade Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz identified further problems with the system, including incorrect numbers on violation notices and overbilled fine amounts, calling them “unacceptable.”
The vendor hired by both Duval County and Miami-Dade public schools – BusPatrol America – has touted its product as a lifesaver for schoolchildren by preventing motorists from running over kids as they exit buses along busy roads.
At a Duval school board workshop on Jan. 20, members were told that bus-mounted cameras had achieved “mixed results” in other counties, and that “some had to shut it down.” No details were offered about those problems in the video archive of the workshop, and no one asked why those districts had to end the program.
The artificial-intelligence-powered cameras are designed to activate, reading a vehicle’s license plate, whenever a motorist rolls past a school bus with its “stop arm” extended, indicating that students may be entering or exiting.
Florida law requires motorists heading in either direction to stop when the arm is extended. But there is an exception in the case of a divided roadway with a raised median. On such roadways, oncoming traffic on the opposite side of the median can proceed.
The Trib and Herald investigation found that motorists passing legally on the opposite side of the upraised median were nonetheless being fined. Motorists issued violation notices receive still images and video of their supposed violation, and some were shocked to see they had been improperly ticketed. Miami-Dade had set up no system for motorists to challenge the violations.
After the publication of The Trib’s reporting, at least 1,000 Miami-Dade drivers, who felt they did nothing wrong, contested their violation notices.
Last fall, BusPatrol America was ranked first among the six vendors seeking the contract for Duval’s School Bus Stop Arm Camera Violation Program. The contract between the district and BusPatrol was finalized in February.
In March, Virginia-based BusPatrol began to install the school bus cameras on over 900 buses across the district.
The program is now in full operation, but with warning notices rather than violations carrying fines.
Starting May 1, Duval County motorists will face $225 fines if they are caught by the cameras.
BusPatrol, which installed the cameras at no cost to the Duval district, expects to generate millions of dollars in revenue for both the schools and the company.
Before the indefinite suspension by the sheriff’s office in Miami-Dade, the school district indicated the program grossed $19.5 million in just the first six months, with the bulk of the money going to BusPatrol.
The Miami-Dade sheriff’s office spokesperson did not respond last week to requests for comment from The Florida Trib.
Even after Miami-Dade suspended the program, problems persisted. An audit found that drivers were not told that the fines had been forgiven.
Last week, The Florida Trib asked Steve Randazzo, BusPatrol’s chief growth officer, whether the company has corrected any of the issues that plagued its relationship with Miami-Dade. Randazzo acknowledged receipt of the question but did not answer.
Unlike in other counties, school police personnel in Duval will be responsible for reviewing footage captured by cameras before a violation is issued, according to a fact sheet issued by the district.
“All recorded violations will be reviewed by school police before a citation is issued to certify that a violation has occurred,” Duval schools spokesperson Sonya Duke-Bolden said.
The district did not respond to The Florida Trib’s inquiry about how many police personnel will be allotted to the task of reviewing videos.
The school district’s fact sheet makes no mention of the appeal process for motorists who feel they were unjustly ticketed, although that was identified as a “major concern” during public discussions between BusPatrol and the board.
District 1 School Board member Anthony Ricardo said BusPatrol was chosen because it was “one of the better ones considered by our technical people that would take care of what we wanted without overburdening our system and without having issues with fitting [the cameras] to the buses, and costing the district an unusually high amount of money.”
Ricardo liked that BusPatrol offered free installation of the cameras.
“With some of these other companies, there’s an installation charge per bus, and that was not the case here. So this is cost-neutral to us. So that’s a big selling point right there. And, it gets the job done that we need it to do,” Ricardo added.
The district will receive 50% of the proceeds from the fines, a larger share than in Miami-Dade, which was to get 30% for the first two years, before that percentage increased under its contract.
According to the agreement between the Duval district and BusPatrol, the company will collect all fines and penalties, paying the district its share on a monthly basis.
While both the school board and BusPatrol expect to generate significant revenue from the traffic fines, they say the safety of students is what matters.
“My primary responsibilities are student safety and academic excellence, and both begin with ensuring our students are safe,” said Darryl Willie, District 4 School Board member.
“Through our ‘Be Safe Be Seen’ campaign, we’ve been working to build awareness and shared accountability across our community. This program is a continuation of that effort, and we have done our due diligence to get to this point.”
Trinity Webster-Bass is The Tributary’s inaugural Investigative Journalism Fellow. You can reach her at trinity.webster-bass@floridatrib.org.