Polk County school district will install cameras on buses to deter illegal passing
Driving past a stopped school bus could soon yield a fine, even if no law-enforcement officer is nearby.
Polk County Public Schools will soon equip its buses with cameras to document instances of drivers ignoring their stop signs.
The district signed a contract in April with Verra Mobility Corp. to install cameras on more than 500 buses and to provide the technology to share images with law enforcement. The contract calls for the CrossingGuard cameras to be mounted on the driver sides of buses by November, but the goal is to have them installed by the start of the next school year.
Driving past a school bus with its stop-arm extended has long been illegal because of the danger it poses to children departing or boarding buses. The Florida Department of Education released a survey last year indicating that nearly 8,400 school buses were illegally passed in just one day, Verra Mobility said in a news release.
Verra Mobility cited statistics estimating that 43 million illegal passings of school buses occur in the country annually.
Images provided by Verra show cameras contained in relatively small metal cabinets affixed to buses and painted to match their mustard yellow coloring. The inset cameras face forward, backwards and sideways.
Under the contract, Polk County Public Schools will pay nothing for installing and operating the cameras. Verra charges a flat fee of $200 per camera per month, but the district’s cost will be covered through payments from violation revenues. There is also a $49 fee per "event package" — video, license plate image and other data.
Verra Mobility is a publicly traded company based in Mesa, Arizona. The company has worked in Florida for more than a decade, operating red-light cameras and school zone safety systems, a company official said.
The Polk County district operates more than 120 schools with over 115,000 students.
“Polk County is one of the fastest growing communities in the nation,” School Superintendent Frederick Heid said in a news release from Verra. “More vehicles are on our roads than ever before. We are hopeful this innovative technology will help make our roadways less dangerous — particularly for our students. We must do everything possible to keep our children safe, and stop motorists from breaking the law.”
Polk County Sheriff's Office will review images
The school district also signed an intergovernmental agreement with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, which will review images captured by the cameras and issue citations.
“Nothing is more important than the safety of our children,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in the release. “Everyone agrees that protecting our kids by enforcing the school bus stop arm law is the right thing to do. I am excited about this new technology that will help us keep kids safe.”
The Florida Legislature last year passed a law setting the civil penalty for driving past a school bus’ stop signal to $225 for violations captured by a detection system. Of that amount, $200 goes to the school district in which the violation occurs and $25 to the Florida Department of Health’s Emergency Medical Services Trust Fund for payment to trauma centers.
The school district will conduct “an extensive public awareness campaign” for 30 days before any citations are issued, the news release said.
Heid discussed the program at a School Board work session on April 23. Matthew Reich, a sales executive with Verra, said the goal is changing driver behavior.
Among drivers who receive a ticket for passing a stopped school bus, 99% do not receive a second ticket, Reich told School Board members. He said that Verra has measured a 10% decrease year over year in districts where the bus cameras have been installed.
Installed within 180 days
The contract says that all the cameras will be installed on buses within 180 days of the notice to proceed, which was issued in early May. Verra will provide training to law enforcement, courts and school employees as needed.
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The district has the option of adding right-side cameras a flat $25 fee, plus a $49 charge for each batch of images sent to law enforcement.
Images captured by bus cameras will be reviewed by a qualified deputy or other staff member from the Sheriff’s Office. Under the contract, PCSO will determine whether a violation occurred within three days of the transmission of images.
The school district has not yet determined how the Sheriff's Office will be compensated for reviewing the data supplied by the cameras, spokesperson Scott Wilder said. PCSO will not receive any payment from Verra, he said.
The contract runs for five years and can be extended for another five years. Verra retains ownership rights to all metadata, business intelligence or other analytics obtained from the material captured by cameras and to the back-office system.
Verra will recommend the bus routes and the number of cameras to be installed, the contract says. Both sides must agree to all installations.
In the event of damage, cameras will be replaced at the district’s expense, except for defects covered by a warranty.
The city of Lakeland has contracted with Verra Mobility, previously known as American Traffic Solutions, for red-light cameras and automated surveillance cameras along roads.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk school district adds cameras to buses to deter illegal passing
