{"id":370277,"date":"2026-08-13T11:26:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/370277\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T11:26:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T11:26:38","slug":"broward-county-rolls-out-stop-arm-camera-program-for-school-buses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/370277\/","title":{"rendered":"Broward County rolls out stop-arm camera program for school buses"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"In<\/p>\n

In a press release last November, Steve Randazzo, Buspatrol\u2019s chief growth officer, said \u2018over 90% of folks who get one violation in the mail do not break the law again.\u2019<\/p>\n

Alie Skowronski<\/p>\n

askowronski@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n

When a school bus stops in Broward County, hit the brakes. If you don\u2019t, new AI-powered cameras installed on the buses could leave bad drivers stuck with a pricey ticket.<\/p>\n

With class back in session this week, the school district launched its new Broward County School Bus Safety Program<\/a>, a collaboration between the district, the Broward County Public Schools Police Department and BusPatrol, a private company that equips school buses with cameras that use artificial intelligence to detect drivers that illegally pass a school bus while the stop-arm is deployed.<\/p>\n

There is currently a 30-day grace period in which drivers will receive a warning, not a ticket. Starting Sept. 9, drivers who don\u2019t stop for school buses may be hit with a $225 citation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen stop arm comes out, the camera starts rolling,\u201d said Superintendent Howard Hepburn.<\/p>\n

Broward Schools launched its program with BusPatrol shortly after Miami-Dade County Public Schools relaunched a similar program with the same company<\/a> in May. Last May, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz suspended the program<\/a> after a Miami Herald\/Florida Tributary investigation<\/a> found that Miami-Dade drivers received faulty citations that were virtually impossible to challenge in court.<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer Jennifer Gonzalez, who was fined by BusPatrol despite driving legally, says Miami-Dade\u2019s bus safety program appears to deliberately make it difficult to challenge the fines so people will just pay. Photo by Matias J. Ocner mocner@miamiherald.com <\/p>\n

But officials in both counties say they\u2019ve fixed the program.<\/p>\n

Cordero-Stutz said at a press conference this year that changes made by the legislature on how BusPatrol can operate convinced her that the program will not be plagued by the same issues again. Hepburn told the Herald he also feels confident that the problems Miami-Dade had in the past will not happen in Broward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different for us. That\u2019s why we took our time,\u201d Hepburn said.<\/p>\n

Hepburn said Broward Schools learned from the experiences of other school districts before launching its bus safety program with BusPatrol. While the cameras are programmed to detect when a driver inappropriately passes a stopped school bus, a \u201chuman being from our school police department\u201d reviews every video to determine if there was a violation before a citation is sent out, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to work with BusPatrol. Our legal team was able to get certain things in the contract, so we can mitigate all of those concerns that other school districts experienced So we can have a better rollout,\u201d Hepburn said. \u201cPeople can have confidence that they don\u2019t have to worry about the issues that others have experienced in school districts around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Superintendent Superintendent Howard Hepburn and school board members Debra Hixon, left, and Allen Zeman walk through Sunrise Middle School in Fort Lauderdale on the first day of school on Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. Amy Beth Bennett South Florida Sun Sentinel <\/p>\n

Steven Randazzo, the BusPatrol chief growth operator, said the company will mail the notice of violation to the owner of the vehicle, who will have three options listed on the notice. That person can pay the fine, transfer liability (if the owner of the vehicle was not the driver) or request a hearing to challenge the citation.<\/p>\n

The mailed notices also include a link to view the same video of the alleged violation that the police officer saw, Randazzo said. The citations amount to a fine and do not put points on a driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n

About 400 school districts nationwide use BusPatrol, Randazzo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe program will be administered with the utmost professionalism, integrity and transparency. Like any new program, there\u2019s always ways to get a little bit better and for lessons to be learned,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the school district, like Dr. Hepburn said, thoroughly vetted the technology and the processes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a press release last November, Steve Randazzo, Buspatrol\u2019s chief growth officer, said \u2018over 90% of folks who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":370278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-370277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370277","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=370277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/370278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}