FLORIDA — Cameras catching drivers who illegally pass stopped school buses or speed through school zones are generating millions of citations across Florida — and a growing wave of legal challenges.
For nearly 3 years, Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone and photojournalist Matthew Apthorp have been tracking the problems with these new automated school cameras and the millions of dollars they generate. But legal fights over these cameras are proving to be a bumpy road.
Miami-based Attorney Gino Moreno filed 3 lawsuits last year after our investigation found drivers hit with $225 school bus camera fines had no way to challenge them because the cameras started rolling without proper due process in place.
"They were getting handed out tickets, and there was no way for the drivers to contest it," Moreno said.
WATCH: Legal challenges over school bus and school speed zone cameras hit roadblocks
Since then, his cases have hit a wall.
In Polk County, a judge dismissed his federal case. In Miami-Dade, a revised complaint is pending, and in Hillsborough County, his client, Stanley Shultz, is still waiting to see if his case will move forward.
"I mean, this has certainly been disheartening, but we're hopeful," Moreno said.
Shultz, who lives in Plant City, was fined for illegally passing a school bus — even though video from his citation shows the bus’s warning lights never flashed. Shultz appeals the fine, but a judge in Tallahassee upheld it, despite state law requiring appeals must be heard by “local hearing officers.” So Shultz is fighting back, accusing the county of not following state rules for appeal hearings.
"I felt that I was guilty before even going into the hearing," Shultz said about his hearing with the Tallahassee judge.
Legal questions over these new cameras extend beyond school buses. Our investigation also found concerns about school speed zone cameras, with drivers fined when school was not in session or when signs directing them to slow down never flashed.
Questions also emerged about the camera devices themselves. The radar inside the cameras, which state law requires to be approved by the state, is not approved. The state maintains it is exempt. Attorney Ira Karmelin with The Ticket Clinic
has used that argument to successfully get school speed zone tickets thrown out — but he says judges are now starting to side with the state’s claim of exemption even though the exemption refers to a radar’s design, not the device itself.
"You don't want a radar that's so powerful that it's actually harming people by the radar beams," Karmelin said about why the devices require state approval to begin with.
Since the cameras began operating in Florida, they’ve generated well over 1 million citations and tens of millions of dollars in paid fines as of earlier this year. While these legal challenges continue to hit roadblocks, judges have left the door open for appeals or new legal arguments.
“This is something that will impact a lot of people, so we know that judges are taking this seriously,” Moreno said.
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Katie LaGrone focuses on making sure Florida’s laws actually work and her investigations have gotten results. If you know of a policy or law that’s not working how it’s intended, send Katie a message below.
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