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Miami-Dade, FL - Miami-Dade County Sheriff announced the immediate suspension of enforcing certain school bus camera citations across South Florida.
The school bus camera program, initiated in 2024, was designed to enhance student safety by issuing citations to drivers illegally passing stopped school buses.
Utilizing cameras mounted on both poles and the sides of buses, the system automatically captures license plates of offending vehicles.
Citations are typically issued to drivers exceeding the school zone speed limit by 10 mph or more, where the limit is 5 mph.
A median violation occurs when a driver unlawfully crosses the median—a strip or barrier separating lanes of traffic moving in opposite directions—to overtake a stopped school bus.
The suspension follows investigative reports highlighting that numerous Miami-Dade drivers received erroneous citations.
Many drivers traveling on the opposite side of a raised median from a stopped school bus—which is legally permissible—were still issued $225 fines.
Attempts to contest these violations reportedly left drivers awaiting court dates that never materialized, leading many to pay the fines without proper adjudication.
The school bus safety initiative is a collaboration between the Miami-Dade School District, the Sheriff's Office, and BusPatrol, a private vendor responsible for administering the program.
Following the suspension, Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent Jose Dotres directed Miami-Dade Schools Police Chief Ivan Silva to work with the Sheriff's Office to rectify the citation review process.
In response to the suspension, Steve Randazzo, Chief Growth Officer of BusPatrol, stated that enforcement decisions are at the discretion of law enforcement agencies, and BusPatrol supports such decisions.
Additionally, a class-action lawsuit has been filed against BusPatrol on behalf of Miami-Dade drivers alleging due process violations when contesting their tickets.
As of December 19th, approximately 120,000 drivers had received violation notices for illegally passing extended school bus stop arms.
Courts have reportedly received over 1,000 contestation notices, but no drivers have yet had the opportunity to present their cases before a judge.
The Sheriff's Office and the School District have not clarified whether the suspension applies retroactively to drivers who have already received violation notices.