JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After weeks of warnings, Duval County School Police are preparing to begin full enforcement of a new stop arm bus camera program in partnership with BusPatrol America. Starting Friday, drivers caught illegally passing a stopped school bus will be fined $225.
The move comes after a 30-day public awareness campaign that school leaders say revealed just how often drivers are ignoring school bus stop arms.
From April 1st through April 21st, school police reviewed 803 potential violations captured by AI-powered cameras installed on hundreds of buses across the district. Out of those, 194 were disapproved, while 609 warnings were mailed to drivers.
Data from the district shows many of those violations happened on some of Jacksonville’s busiest roadways, including Blanding Boulevard, Edgewood Avenue West, and West Beaver Street.
For some Jacksonville parents, the program gives them hope that their children will be safer going to and from school.
“I have kids that used to ride the school bus, and I would see people that would be passing it, and it would make me upset because I’m like, ‘Why are y’all passing?’” said Yolanda Bartley. “These kids could be going to the left or to the right, you never know. And kids get hit. It’s very dangerous.”
Another parent, Olga Nushtayeva, says she supports the added enforcement, especially given the risks children face getting on and off the bus.
“I think it’s wonderful. It’s always scary to see, as a mom, when people don’t stop for school buses and thinking about how those kids could get hurt,” Nushtayeva said.
Still, she says her support depends on the system working correctly.
Last year, the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office suspended its BusPatrol program after drivers were wrongly cited. In Hillsborough County, a class action lawsuit filed earlier this year claims the citation process was difficult for drivers to challenge.
“I mean if it’s wrongly ticketing then it’s not working, but if they can figure out how to fix it that would be good,” she said. “I hope to never be on the news as a mom whose kid got run over by a car, so I think definitely more accountability for drivers who run school buses should be there.”
Duval County Schools Police say they have taken those issues into account. A spokesperson for the district says every recorded violation is reviewed by school police before a citation is issued, adding an extra layer of oversight before fines are sent out.
For drivers who believe they were cited in error, the district says there is a formal appeals process through the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings.
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