FLORIDA — A few days ago, Tampa resident Karen Coring emailed us. She’s one of the original drivers we spoke with nearly one year ago who believed she was wrongly ticketed for passing a school bus while it was stopped for kids.
In her email, Coring described having an “important development” about her case. Coring received the ticket a year ago and has been waiting all this time just to challenge it.
"I got a letter stating I already had a hearing date that I missed," Coring told us.
Coring said she was never notified of a hearing."I had no idea. I haven't received any letters about a hearing!”
For Coring, this was a big deal. As a result, her original $225 fine will now cost her $270, according to a letter she received indicating that she was being held liable for the fine.
Coring’s update is just the latest from her year-long saga with Florida’s new school bus camera program. The cameras started rolling on drivers last year in several Florida counties, including Miami-Dade, Polk, and Hillsborough County, where Coring lives.
In 2023, lawmakers approved a bill that allows Florida school districts to equip its buses with cameras. The intent of the legislation was to increase student safety around school bus stops by catching drivers who illegally pass a school bus while it's stopped for students.
The problem was drivers around the state swiftly started complaining that they were being unfairly fined.
Coring was one of the first drivers Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone and Photojournalist Matthew Apthorp spoke with.
"I didn't illegally pass the school bus," Coring told us back in February.
Lars Larsen, a Tampa dad with five young kids, also believed he was wrongly ticketed. Video from both Coring and Larsen’s citations raises questions about whether either or both drivers had already passed the front of the school bus by the time the bus’s stop arm started to deploy.
After LaGrone began investigating their complaints, she discovered that drivers ticketed by these cameras had no way to challenge their violations.Turns out, while the camera vendor and school districts started rolling on drivers, the process for drivers to contest their tickets was never set up.
As a result of our findings, lawmaker quietly adjusted the law to ensure people could properly challenge their fines.
Drivers fumed.
“That’s just obnoxious," Larson told us when we revealed the lack of due process in place.
"100% it’s a money grab," he said.
Many others felt the same. Cleo Davis in Polk County called the camera program, “strong arm robbery,” after he was captured passing a school bus right before train tracks. Davis said no children ever got off the bus, and he thought the bus had stopped because they were required to stop at the train tracks.
Raising more questions, LaGrone found the cameras are generating a ton of cash. In Miami-Dade and Broward counties alone, paid violations generated more than $40 million in just a matter of months. The for-profit camera vendor, BusPatrol, keeps 70% of every paid fine.
"That sticker shock, that 70% sounds like a salacious number, but what people don't realize is that BusPatrol is fronting all of the capital to the tune of millions of dollars,” said Steve Randazzo of BusPatrol.
Now nearly a year later, after our investigation helped inspire lawmakers to change the law, administrative law judges are conducting appeal hearings through zoom. Hillsborough County started holding hearings in August. Other counties are still working to implement its own appeals processes.
Of more than 1,100 appeal hearings held in Hillsborough, nearly 90% have ended with the judge upholding the violation, according to data from the Hillsborough County school district provided by BusPatrol.
While Coring said she was never notified about her own hearing, Larson had a different outcome.
"I received a notice that my case was dismissed, and I received that notice by mail two days before my court date," Larsen said.
Larsen said there was no reason stated in his letter explaining his sudden dismissal. According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office, which reviews citations before they’re sent out, Larsen’s dismissal stemmed from an “administrative review.”
“I'll take that as they're admitting guilt on their own behalf or their system kind of failed after reviewing it a second time, I guess,” Larsen said.
According to BusPatrol, drivers who miss their scheduled appeal hearing can get an additional hearing. Coring has already submitted information for another appeal.
But what happened to Coring and Larsen continues to illustrate what has been the main issue with these cameras all along—a hastily rolled out camera program pitched to keep students safe but still leaving drivers confused, frustrated, and questioning who's really benefiting?
"It's a mess, it's confusion," Coring said.
"I was actually looking forward to the Zoom call,” Larsen said. “It’s like you've strung me out this long and you're picking a fight with somebody who didn't do anything wrong. I was ready to make a mockery of them,” he said.
In Miami-Dade, the Sheriff suspended its school bus camera program over various issues, including the driver’s lack of due process. Polk County has also suspended its bus cameras until an appeal process is in place.
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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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