Six months after the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office suspended the school bus safety camera program—a joint effort between the school district, the sheriff’s office, and BusPatrol—the district is still searching for a way forward. Meanwhile, BusPatrol has enlisted two well-connected local lobbyists to help push the program.
The effort to salvage the program and address a backlog of thousands of contested citations dominated a Wednesday committee meeting. School board member Danny Espino proposed contracting with the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, which uses administrative law judges to hear traffic citation challenges virtually—a model already used in Hillsborough County.
The program was approved by the school board in August 2023 as a “turn-key” solution by BusPatrol. Cameras would be installed on buses, and the company would coordinate with the sheriff to issue $225 citations to drivers who failed to stop for extended bus stop arms, while also allowing motorists to contest the tickets…