School bus camera program fining drivers has no process to challenge violations

TAMPA, Fla. — If the wheels on the bus go round and round, new school bus cameras are dizzyingly capturing drivers blowing past buses illegally.

The motive for these cameras is simple.

“We just want our kids to be able to get on the bus and go to school safely, and that's it,” explained Laura Hill, Director of Transportation for the Hillsborough County school district.

However, some drivers believe the cameras are set up for them to fail.

“Under these programs, everyone’s an offender. It’s not if, it’s when,” said Lars Larson of Tampa.

Larson recently received a notice of violation for blowing past a school bus in his neighborhood. But when he viewed the video of his violation online…

“I saw the video, and I'm like, 'Okay, you got me,'” he said. “But then I played it through, and I’m like, hold on!”

Larson is one of more than 55,000 drivers in Hillsborough County who have been cited for passing a stopped school bus with its stop-arm sign out in just the first four and a half months of the school year.

The cameras are part of a new state law that allows school districts to record drivers who ignore a bus’s signs to stop.

So far, cameras are equipped on school buses in Hillsborough, Miami-Dade, Polk, and Santa Rosa counties.

As we’ve previously reported, since the beginning of the school year, cameras have caught tens of thousands of drivers in these counties illegally driving past a bus while it’s stopped for students.

For Larson, once he looked closer at the video of his violation, the father of five was left fuming.

“It’s absurd, just absurd,” he said about the footage from his citation.

In one of the videos, Larson, who was driving a white Yukon SUV, appears to drive past the front side of the school bus a few moments after the bus stops.

But in another video showing the side of the bus, Larson’s SUV appears to already be parallel to the bus just as the bus’s stop sign arm begins to deploy. According to the county’s agreement with the bus vendor, BusPatrol, the stop sign does not need to be fully deployed for a violation to occur.

Larson is now being fined $225.

“I want these kids to be safe. I want us to have safe neighborhoods. But I also don’t want to have to deal with getting something in the mail threatening to fine me for something I didn't do,” he said. “It’s 100%, a money grab."

“Absolutely,” David Walker agreed. Walker was also fined after a Hillsborough County school bus camera captured him turning out of his subdivision ahead of a school bus.

In one of the videos from his violation, Walker appears to make a left turn just as a school bus is coming to a stop. In another view, Walker’s jeep is seen past the bus as the bus’s stop arm begins to deploy.

“I got my ticket for doing absolutely nothing,” he maintains.

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Karen Coring is also fired up after receiving a citation in the mail for the same thing.

“I don't know why I got that ticket,” she said after reviewing the video of her violation. “I didn't illegally pass the school bus. That was my first thought. I was just driving, and the stop sign wasn't out, and I just passed the bus."

While all three drivers agree that student safety is paramount, they all believe these cameras are set up to catch drivers unfairly. They’re planning to challenge their citations.

But we’ve discovered that challenging a violation in court in Hillsborough County isn’t even possible right now. That’s because the legal process that should give drivers a chance to defend themselves against a citation isn’t set up, even though the cameras are rolling and issuing fines.

So, drivers who want to challenge a violation can’t and don’t know it.

“That’s just obnoxious, it's obnoxious,” said Larson.

According to the school district, just under 1500 drivers who received a school bus camera violation have already opted to contest it.

How or why the system for people to properly contest their violation isn’t operating and wasn’t set up before the county started issuing violations remains unknown.

The Hillsborough County School District, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, which reviews the video and issues the violation, and the camera company BusPatrol all profit from paid fines.

In December, the school district’s share of the money generated from paid violations totaled $1,038,102.90 - more than 20 times what it generated from citations just two months earlier. All district revenue generated from fines must be used for the maintenance and operation of the district’s school bus infraction detection systems, which include school bus cameras.

Despite repeated requests, neither the school district, sheriff’s office, nor BusPatrol would talk to us on camera about why the system to contest citations isn’t set up even though citations have been sent out since mid-September.

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According to the district’s contract, Buspatrol receives $65 for every violation paid in the county. The camera vendor receives an additional monthly flat fee of $225 for every camera system installed on every bus in the district. According to the district's transportation director, all 1,000 school buses are now equipped with these cameras.

In response to questions about the lack of due process in place, a spokesperson from BusPatrol, said in a statement,

“Anyone who receives a citation for illegally passing a school bus should be afforded all due process remedies provided under law.”

Meantime, a spokesperson for the Hillsborough County Schools district would only explain the lack of due process like this, “…the court system is finalizing their part of the process.”

“As it stands, they are violating people’s rights,” said Jesse Philippe, an attorney in Tampa.

He said operating cameras to catch drivers without having the full system already in place for them to contest a violation is illegal.

“It’s not fair at all because it's taking away a fundamental right that we all have, which is to be able to make sure that we confront our accusers,” he explained.

As a result, Philippe warns the school district to stop the cameras immediately and dismiss all unpaid violations until drivers have a proper way to defend themselves.

We showed Philippe videos of the violations from some of the drivers we spoke with for this report. He believes Walker’s video shows his violation is “on the fence.” He said Larson’s citation video raises questions about why he was issued a violation.

“If you look at the video, you can see that the driver was already past the stop sign before it actually went out,” he said. “So that would be one of the prime examples on why you need to essentially have a board in place to contest these tickets,” he said.

In its statement, a spokesperson for the school district added that drivers who have contested their violation “are not required to pay for the violation at this time, and their due process has been protected.”

“The intent of the statute was to protect children. Now, it seems like the intent of the statute is defying people without the ability to even contest it,” said attorney Philippe. “To me, it is a money grab,” he said.

For Larson, his final message to the government agencies and private companies profiting off these citations is simple.

“I'll see you in court, but I guess I can’t…yet.”