{"id":228538,"date":"2026-04-12T11:34:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:34:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/228538\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T11:34:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T11:34:25","slug":"duval-county-set-to-fine-drivers-for-passing-stopped-school-buses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/228538\/","title":{"rendered":"Duval County set to fine drivers for passing stopped school buses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Duval County is set to fine drivers for passing stopped school buses, amid concerns from Miami-Dade’s flawed program. Officials promise robust safeguards to prevent.<\/p>\n

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 As Duval County prepares to issue fines to drivers caught passing stopped school buses, problems with a similar camera program in South Florida are raising questions about how the system will work locally.<\/p>\n

According to the Tribune and Herald report<\/a>, Drivers in Miami-Dade County were wrongly ticketed hundreds of times after a school bus camera program there issued citations to drivers who were actually following the law.<\/p>\n

That program was eventually suspended after officials discovered major problems, including incorrect citations and overwhelmed reviewers.<\/p>\n

Now, with fines set to begin soon in Duval County, school police leaders say safeguards are in place to prevent similar issues.<\/p>\n

In Miami-Dade, school bus cameras were designed to catch drivers who passed stopped school buses \u2014 similar to the system now installed in Duval County.<\/p>\n

But an investigation found some drivers<\/a> received $225 citations even though they were legally driving, particularly on divided roadways where Florida law allows traffic to continue on the opposite side of a raised median.<\/p>\n

Officials also found that police officers reviewing violations were struggling to keep up with the volume \u2014 more than 400 possible violations per day.<\/p>\n

Some notices reportedly listed incorrect fine amounts, and many drivers had difficulty challenging their citations.<\/p>\n

Eventually, the Miami-Dade Sheriff\u2019s Office suspended the program indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Duval County Public Schools partnered with BusPatrol America to install stop-arm cameras on more than 900 school buses.<\/p>\n

The system uses artificial intelligence to flag potential violations, but officials stress that human review is required before any ticket is issued.<\/p>\n

Duval County School Police Chief Jackson Short said the review process includes multiple steps.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we\u2019re only going to be approving citations that are obvious violations, and I think that would eliminate some of the problems they experienced in South Florida,\u201d Short said.<\/p>\n

According to Short, the AI system first detects possible violations. The footage is then reviewed by BusPatrol before being sent to a school police officer for final approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guidance that I\u2019ve given our police officers is if you\u2019re not sure, don\u2019t approve the ticket,\u201d Short said.<\/p>\n

District leaders say the cameras are necessary because drivers frequently ignore school bus stop arms.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not just seeing one car drive past the stop arm,\u201d Short said. \u201cThey\u2019re seeing two, three, and four cars going through the same stop arm.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than 30,000 students ride school buses in Duval County each day.<\/p>\n

Officials say the goal is to prevent injuries and improve safety around buses.<\/p>\n

The program is currently in its warning phase.<\/p>\n

Drivers who violate the law during April will receive warning notices in the mail. Beginning May 1, those warnings will be replaced with official citations carrying a $225 fine.<\/p>\n

District leaders said the system will continue to be monitored as enforcement begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Duval County is set to fine drivers for passing stopped school buses, amid concerns from Miami-Dade’s flawed program.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":228539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-228538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=228538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/228539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}