Miami-Dade issued $2.2 million in school bus camera tickets. See the hotspots
Miami Herald | By: Austin Horn | September 22, 2026
Miami-Dade County Public Schools’ controversial school bus camera ticketing program relaunched last May after a yearlong hiatus, and now we know how much the school district made in the final weeks of school — and where drivers were getting cited the most.
The school bus stop-arm cameras issued 7,902 citations of $225 each between May 18 and the last day of school on June 4, according to records obtained by the Miami Herald — a total of nearly $1.8 million in tickets to drivers. The data covered May 18 through July 15 and during the period after school was out, when school buses travel much less frequently, about 2,000 more people were cited. The total amount in citations issued from May 18 to July 15 exceeded $2.2 million.
The school bus safety program — a collaboration between the school district, the sheriff’s office and a private company called Bus Patrol — started in May 2024 when Bus Patrol installed camera systems on the district’s fleet of school buses to catch drivers illegally passing stopped school buses with extended stop arms. In the first six months, more than 100,000 notices of violation were issued to drivers.
The program was suspended by the Miami-Dade sheriff’s office last April after complaints from the public and a Miami Herald/Florida Tributary investigation revealed that many motorists felt they were receiving violation notices erroneously and were unable to challenge them because the system was backlogged.
After legislative changes and several school district audits of the program earlier this year, the school board OK’d it to restart on May 18, 14 school days before campuses closed to students.
One audit found that the district did not understand the scope of coordination the program would involve between the parties and did not appropriately vet the vendor before entering into the contract.
Upon relaunching, the program changed the compensation structure. In the initial contract, 70% of the money collected from citations ended up going to Bus Patrol. In the first six months of the program alone, it brought in $19.5 million. Under the new revised contract, the program will be paid for through a combination of a subscription fee for the technology installed on the buses and a cut of the fines, the Miami Herald reported. The district pays $225 a month per bus to rent the tech and Bus Patrol gets $65 for every $225 ticket issued.
Where are Miami-Dade schoolbus cameras citing drivers?
From May 18 to July 15, cameras affixed to Miami-Dade schoolbuses cited drivers for illegally passing a bus while stopped more than 9,000 times at more than 1,800 different street blocks.
Where are they ticketing? In the nearly two months of data acquired by the Herald via a public records request, drivers were cited in virtually every corner of the county but there were a handful of hot spots around the county where high numbers of citations were handed out.
The hottest spot was the intersection of South Allapattah Road and SW 211 Street, by Southland Mall in Cutler Bay. Bus cameras caught 201 drivers illegally pass stopped buses on one specific block, per school district data. It’s a generally busy intersection that sits between several schools like Arthur & Polly Mays 6-12 Conservatory of the Arts, Miami Southridge Senior High and Caribbean K-8 Center.
Another big cluster of citations in South Miami-Dade occurred in the Kendall area near Terra Environmental Research Institute, a public magnet school; Kendale Elementary and the Kendall campus of Miami Dade College.
In the northern part of the county, one particular area that’s seen many citations is Hialeah Gardens, which is home to both an elementary school and a high school – 93 citations were issued on a street leading up to the high school.
Some hotspots aren’t necessarily right next to schools. For instance, on a one-mile stretch of NW Seventh Street just south of the Miami International Airport, bus cameras cited drivers more than 200 times.
