'100% it’s a money grab': Fla school bus cameras generate millions for schools

Recent videos from new school bus cameras in Hillsborough County captured drivers blowing past buses that are stopped for students.

In one video provided to us by the Hillsborough County School District, a car abruptly stops just inches from a young child who slipped and fell on the road as he was making his way to the bus.

It’s close calls like these that are behind new school bus cameras and the $225 citations now being mailed to drivers caught on camera illegally passing a bus.

School buses in Miami-Dade, Hillsborough, Polk, and Santa Rosa Counties are now equipped with these automated cameras that catch drivers in the act.

In just the first few months of this school year, more than 100,000 drivers have been caught ignoring school bus stop-arm signs that direct drivers to stop.

LM Otero/AP

“Our students are safer and safer every day that we have these cameras on our buses,” said Patti Rendon, a school board member in Hillsborough County.

The cameras are part of a new state law that allows school districts to record drivers who disobey the longstanding law requiring them to stop when a bus stops and its stop sign begins to deploy.

But we’ve discovered these cameras that are catching drivers running past red stop signs are also generating a whole lot of green.

School bus cameras generate millions of dollars

In Polk County, in the first four months of this school year, school bus cameras captured nearly 7,000 violations and collected nearly $600,000 in paid fines, according to a district spokesperson.

In Hillsborough County, more than 55,000 violations have been issued since mid-September. The school district’s share of revenues from camera violations went from nearly $50,000 in October to more than $1 million just two months later.

Miami-Dade County records provided to us through a school district public record request showed that between September and December of 2024, the county received nearly $4.5 million dollars from a total of nearly $15 million collected in paid fines.

All of the revenue has been generated from new automated school bus cameras.

By law, all revenue collected by a school district through bus camera fines must be used for school bus safety efforts, including drivers and the maintenance and operation of bus cameras.

Who gets the money?

Polk County school bus camera revenue breakdown:
(September 2024- December 2024)

• $352,957.24 — (60%) — allocated to Verra Mobility (camera vendor)
• $180,891.94 - (30%) — allocated to Polk County school district
• $53,892.82 - (approx., 10%) — received by the Polk County Sheriff’s office for reviewing video and issuing citations
• $587,742 — total collected

Hillsborough County school bus camera revenue(School district share only)

• $48,780 — October 2024
• $930,466 — November 2024
• $1,038,102.90 — December 2024

Miami Dade County school bus camera revenue(September 2024- December 2024)

• $10,417,873.60 — allocated to BusPatrol (camera vendor)
• $4,464,802.95 — allocated to Miami Dade County
• $14,882,676.50 — total fines collected

School bus cameras and the controversy behind the lens

But recording from the school bus has its controversies.

Some drivers believe the cameras are set up for them to fail, and the intent is more on profits than student protection.

“100% it’s a money grab,” said Lars Larson in Tampa.

The father of 5 recently received a $225 violation after a bus camera recorded him driving past a stopped school bus near his home.

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However, when Larson reviewed the video of his violation online, he believed it showed him already past the front end of the school bus by the time it stopped and the stop arm began to deploy.

“I am clearly past the driver of the bus right when the light comes on,” he said. “So under these programs, everyone’s an offender. It’s not if, it’s when,” he said.

David Walker is also questioning the citation he received in Hillsborough County.

“I had exited my subdivision while the bus was trying to stop,” he said.

“Are they just handing out tickets expecting people to pay?”

Both Walker and Larson want to contest their violations in court, but they can't.

This fact emerged after we recently discovered that four and half months after Hillsborough County started issuing citations, the legal process that should give drivers a chance to defend themselves isn’t set up and rolling like the bus cameras are.

The Hillsborough County school district calls it a court issue.

“Did I know that the judge and the court part was not in process? No,” said school board member Rendon. “But that’s not my role. That is not my priority. My priority is student safety and the students of this district.”

Rendon said drivers who want to contest their violations can still choose that option. If they do, drivers are supposed to receive a letter from the camera vendor, BusPatrol, indicating they don’t have to pay the fine until their court hearing plays out.

Despite the court delay, Rendon said they have no plans to stop recording drivers and issuing citations. To date, school bus cameras have captured more than 55,000 drivers in the county disobeying the law.

"That’s 55,000 children that their health and safety were in jeopardy, and we can’t jeopardize their safety at all,” said Rendon when asked why they are still operating the program without full due process in place.

“Are they just handing out tickets and expecting people to pay it,” asked Karen Coring who received a citation back in December and has been waiting over a month for her day in court.

A spokesperson for the courts in Hillsborough County said they are working on getting everything set up.

But it remains unclear how long drivers will have to wait to make their case before a judge.

About 1500 drivers have opted to contest their citation in Hillsborough County.

“I still have this ticket over my head, and I want to know was I wrong or was I right? I should be able to fight,” Coring said.

In Santa Rosa County, in Florida’s panhandle, of more than 100 violations contested, more than 40% were dismissed, according to a district spokesperson.

A Polk County school district spokesperson said no one has contested a violation, and the Miami Dade district has yet to provide details.

All the drivers we spoke with see the benefit of having cameras on school buses, but they say it’s also hard to ignore the money that appears to be rolling with them. 

“I have kids also,” said Coring. “So, I want them to have cameras on the school bus but catch the ones that are doing wrong, catch the ones who are running the stop signs. Not everybody is doing that,” she said.