TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County Schools equipped all school bus arms with cameras to capture the license plates of drivers who illegally pass about a year and a half ago, and district leaders say the cameras are making a difference.
According to the district, when they first started using the cameras in October 2024, over 10,000 citations were issued, compared to about 5,600 citations in December 2025.
Tarshe Nelson has been a Hillsborough County school bus driver for the last four and a half years. It’s a second career for her, and a job she takes very seriously.
“They become my children, they become my responsibility. So once I tell the parents, once your student comes up this third step, they’re now trusted, you can trust them with me, they now belong to me, I will take good care of them,” she said.
What makes her job difficult, though, are the other drivers on the road. “They run the stop arms, they’re nonchalant about it, they’re texting, I see a lot of drivers texting,” she said. “I see a lot of drivers side bar conversating with an individual in their vehicle, just showing a lack of concern about our students we have on board these buses.”
In one video taken from a Hillsborough County school bus stop arm camera, you can see a child crossing the street to get on her bus when a car blows past, completely ignoring the stop arms.
“When you blatantly disregard a stopped school bus that has given you warning by having the yellow lights on for quite a time, and then the stop arm out, to blatantly think that whatever you’re doing is more important than stopping for that child to be able to get access to education is super frustrating,” said Laura Hill.
Hill is the General Manager of Transportation for the district. She says that while incidents like that happen daily, the bus patrol school bus stop arm safety program is making a difference.
“Year over year, we’ve seen about a 20% decrease in folks passing the stopped school bus sign, and also we’ve noticed if you get a ticket once, you’re not really a repeat offender,” said Hill.
And while the cameras can’t stop every driver from breaking the law, Tarshe says she feels better knowing they’re there.
“I make sure I point at them and say, ‘Hey, smile you’re on candid camera,’” she said.
Even though there are only a few weeks left in the school year, district officials warn that summer programs will be ramping up, and school buses will still be out on the roads, and the same laws apply, even in the summer months.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office reviews all of the videos captured by the school bus stop arm cameras prior to issuing citations.