BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. – During the first full school year Brevard County used cameras to catch motorists illegally passing stopped school buses, records requested by News 6 reveal the sheriff’s office mailed nearly 18,000 violation notices.
Brevard County Schools equipped about 400 school buses with AI-powered cameras at the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year that can detect vehicles passing when the school buses’ stop arms are extended.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, which reviews video footage and approves the issuance of violation notices to the registered owners of the vehicles, began enforcement in September 2025.
Most accused violators paid the $225 civil penalty without attempting to challenge it, News 6 has learned.
Of the 414 vehicle owners who have disputed the violations, records indicate nearly a quarter had their tickets dismissed by a state administrative law judge.
Brevard Public Schools received more than $1.3 million in revenue from paid bus camera violations between September 2025 and May 2026, documents show.
BusPatrol America LLC, the private contractor that installed and administers the camera system at no cost to taxpayers, also received an undisclosed share of the ticket revenue.
According to the school district’s contract with BusPatrol, the company was to be paid $65 per collected violation plus a flat monthly fee of $225 per camera.
The school district has not yet released public records requested by News 6 that might confirm how much BusPatrol has been compensated since last fall, and the company did disclose the amount to News 6.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office is reimbursed for its actual personnel costs “to the penny” and does not receive a share of citation revenue, according to a BusPatrol spokesperson.
Although school bus passing violations occurred all over Brevard County, the 500 block of North Wickham Road in Melbourne was the top location for tickets with 1,078 violation notices issued in that area, according to data provided by BusPatrol.
The sheriff’s office and school district did not respond to questions indicating whether any measures had been taken to address specific locations where violations frequently occurred.
Brevard County Schools, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office and BusPatrol conducted various messaging and public service campaigns throughout the year to educate drivers about the danger of passing stopped school buses, including a kick-off news conference and several write-ups in the school district’s weekly newsletter.
“BusPatrol invested more than $35,000 of its own funds, at no cost to Brevard taxpayers, in a public education campaign that ran throughout the 2025-2026 school year,” a company spokesperson told News 6. “The campaign generated more than 7.7 million impressions across radio, streaming digital advertising, social media, and local media platforms.”
A Volusia County man contacted News 6 last year after claiming he was wrongly issued a school bus passing ticket in Miami-Dade County, which also uses the BusPatrol camera system. The sheriff’s office later dismissed the ticket.
Photographs and videos of the violator’s license plate were extremely poor resolution and difficult for Ray Shover to decipher.
“I couldn’t read it,” Shover told News 6. “It’s so blurry.”
Around the same time, the sheriff of Miami-Dade County temporarily suspended the enforcement of school bus passing violations following concerns that motorists were having trouble scheduling court hearings to dispute tickets.
The Florida legislature later amended state law to allow motorists to contest violation notices through virtual hearings conducted by the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings in Tallahassee.
Nearly 850 accused Brevard County violators have requested an administrative hearing, records show, which is a small fraction of the nearly 18,000 tickets issued in the county over the past year.
Of the 414 administrative hearings that have occurred so far, records indicate that 99 vehicle owners were found not liable and their tickets were dismissed.
A Tampa area man filed a class action lawsuit against BusPatrol and the Hillsborough County School District earlier this year claiming the administrative hearing process violates a state law requiring a “local hearing officer” to be appointed by the school board or county.
Lawyers for BusPatrol and the school district have filed motions seeking to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Stanley Shultz. The defendants argue Florida law does not define “local” as being physically present in the county.