Broward schools’ bus camera ticket program mired by two-year delay
Miami-Dade program, which was suspended for year, is being relaunched next week
A program to install cameras on Broward school buses and ticket drivers who illegally pass school buses has stalled for nearly two years, amid questions about who would approve violations.
The same program had been suspended for a year in Miami-Dade County, but is being relaunched next week, officials said at a Friday news conference.
The cameras are designed to capture video of motorists who drive past stopped school buses that have extended their stop arms to allow children to enter or exit the bus on the street.
State law requires that any district that wants to implement this program must contract with a law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction over the entire county to review video footage to confirm violations. In Broward, that would be the Broward Sheriff’s Office, but it has been reluctant to participate, school district officials said at an April 7 meeting.
But the government agencies may have reached a resolution to finally allow the program to launch in the 2026-27 school year.
“The Broward Sheriff’s Office is in discussions with the School Board about implementing an agreement that would let school board police issue citations to motorists who illegally pass a stopped school bus,” Veda Coleman-Wright, a spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office, told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a statement.
School district spokesman John Sullivan said officials are hopeful the program can be implemented during the next school year.
“The District is proud of our partnership with the Sheriff’s Office and appreciates their collaboration in allowing our police officers to issue citations once the bus arm cameras are in place,” Sullivan told the Sun Sentinel, adding the district believes the program “will further enhance safety for our students.”
The Broward Sheriff’s Office’s statement didn’t address questions about why it chose not to review the tickets itself. The same program faced high-profile flaws in Miami-Dade County, which caused it to be suspended for a year.
The Miami-Dade school district and BusPatrol are relaunching their bus infraction detection program with cameras mounted on buses. They made the announcement during a news conference at Ronald W. Reagan Doral Senior High School on Friday.
The Miami-Dade school district and BusPatrol held a news conference on Friday announcing the Monday relaunch. Violators will receive warnings for the first two weeks with $225 penalties taking effect on May 18.
The Miami-Dade program, which started in 2024, was flagging more than 407 paid violations per day and generated about $19.5 million in the first six months of the program, the Miami Herald reported.
But a Miami Herald/Tributary investigation found that many drivers who were ticketed by the school district’s bus safety program argued they had done nothing wrong. They said they were legally driving on the opposite side of a raised median from a stopped school bus but still got a $225 ticket. The investigation also said the motorists were not able to get hearings when they tried to appeal.
Steve Randazzo, chief growth officer for BusPatrol, told the Sun Sentinel that the allegation of faulty ticketing was more nuanced than how it was portrayed. Many of the violations were happening at breaks in medians, which he said Miami-Dade police officials at the time considered a violation but the drivers disputed that.
He said law enforcement agencies also had differing rules about whether a fine should apply if the school buses are stopped in parking lots.
A Miami-Dade School District audit, released in February, found that drivers contested 8,172 tickets, but the program lacked a process for court or administrative hearings, leaving those cases in limbo.
The audit also found there were 43,376 notices of violation totaling $9.7 million that were unpaid and uncontested, but the tickets were never converted into uniform traffic citations, where actions could be taken on drivers’ licenses.
The Miami-Dade Police Department was the initial agency that enforced the program, but it was replaced by the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office in January 2025. Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz suspended the program a few months after taking office amid complaints.
At Friday’s news conference, Cordero-Stutz said outstanding citations will be dismissed.
“Accountability must always go hand in hand with fairness, and no one should be penalized under a process that does not meet that standard,” she said.
Since then, the agencies have worked together to make important changes to ensure there are consistent standards for ticketing drivers, Cordero-Stutz said.
In addition, the state has allowed school districts to contract out with a hearing officer to hear complaints, rather than having to rely on a backlogged traffic court, Randazzo said. Miami-Dade County schools are contracting with the Division of Administrative Hearings to review the cases, and the hearings will be mostly virtual.
“A vast majority of people don’t want to sit in a courtroom for five hours and wait to be called,” Randazzo told the Sun Sentinel. “So, we actually feel like it was an enhancement where you can now have a virtual hearing online. Usually, it takes no more than 15 minutes.
“An independent administrative law judge, someone who does not work for the school district, Bus Patrol or the Sheriff’s Office, makes an independent determination if you want to contest your notice of violation.”
Steve Randazzo, chief growth officer with BusPatrol America, joins Miami-Dade County officials as they relaunch the bus infraction detection program. They announced the news at Ronald W. Reagan Doral Senior High School on Friday.
Palm Beach County schools currently have no buses equipped with infraction-detection cameras, a district statement said. “However, we are continuously evaluating our options and monitoring how other school districts are navigating the implementation of these systems.”
Randazzo and Broward school officials would give few details about the Broward program, citing a cone of silence, which is the period between when a request for bids has gone out and when the contract is awarded. The cone of silence has been in effect since March 2024.
District administrators gave some details at an April 7 meeting about what caused the delays. They said that the Sheriff’s Office opted to not review the violations.
“I do want to say that this particular law enforcement agency has been a great partner with Broward County Public Schools, but maybe their priorities are for something else right now because it does take a lot of manpower to review videos of thousands upon thousands of citations that possibly happen so, but they’re choosing not to participate at this time,” Superintendent Howard Hepburn said at the meeting.
District officials did say at the meeting that they hoped to work out an agreement with the Sheriff’s Office to allow school district police to review the video footage.
Board member Allen Zeman said at the meeting that the district may need to hire additional police officers to review the tickets, but he said that the revenue collected would far outweigh the expense, he said.
“I do walk to the school bus every morning,” he said. “It’s alarming how many people fly by the bus while it’s sitting there. It’s almost once a day.
“This program does enhance safety quite a bit. It could be that we run it for a year and the tickets go down to a dribble,” he said. “But that would actually be a great outcome because it means cars aren’t passing our kids getting on a bus.”
