Miami-Dade school board member proposes fix to stalled bus safety camera program
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Miami-Dade drivers fed up with school bus camera tickets
A Miami Herald/Tributary investigation found that Miami area drivers were receiving bogus tickets from the school district’s bus safety program, and had no way to fight them.
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Six months after the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s office suspended the school bus safety program – a collaboration between the school district, the sheriff’s office and BusPatrol – the school board is still trying to piece together a way forward for the program.
Meanwhile, the vendor has enlisted the help of two well-connected local lobbyists.
The push to salvage Miami-Dade’s school bus safety camera program – and resolve a backlog of thousands of contested citations – was the topic of an hours-long conversation at a Wednesday committee meeting. At the meeting, school board member Danny Espino proposed contracting with the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, based in Tallahassee, which uses administrative law judges to hear challenges to traffic citations virtually. Hillsborough County already uses the model.
The school bus safety program was approved by Miami-Dade County school district in August 2023 as a “turn-key” solution proffered by BusPatrol, a company that would install cameras on buses, work with the sheriff’s office to issue $225 citations to drivers who failed to stop, and ensure motorists could contest them in court. The program’s aim was to provide safety to children who use public school buses by ticketing drivers who pass the extended stop arms of buses receiving and dropping off students. The program was revenue-generating, so it didn’t require school board approval.
But within weeks of its May 2024 rollout, problems emerged. The Miami Herald and Tributary reported that drivers who received tickets had no clear way to challenge them. In April, the sheriff disclosed further issues, including incorrect citation numbers and amounts. The program was then suspended.
The beleaguered program was the subject of a recently-released audit by the school district, which found that the program was not properly vetted and didn’t establish the proper communications between the different agencies involved. The audit found the district also didn’t look into problems with BusPatrol’s implementation of programs in New York and Pennsylvania, which were publicly documented prior to Miami-Dade schools contracting with the vendor. In the meeting, Chief Operating Officer Luis Diaz disputed that claim, but audit director Elvira Sanchez confirmed that information was available before the 2023 contract.
Because the BusPatrol deal would generate revenue, it avoided the district’s typical bidding process. Under the contract, 70 percent of revenue from citations went to BusPatrol, with 30 percent to the district. Although no policies were violated, auditors recommended stronger vetting for revenue-generating contracts, which often escape scrutiny.
Since the program was suspended by the sheriff, BusPatrol has hired two well-connected lobbyists: David Custin, who worked as a political consultant for Espino and school board member Mary Blanco during their 2024 campaigns, and Tania Giselle Cruz-Gimenez, who worked on Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz’s successful campaign for sheriff.
Campaign finance records show Espino paid at least $56,411 to Custin’s firm while Blanco paid $106,220.
In a statement, BusPatrol said they are committed to partnering with the district and sheriff to ensure due process for drivers.
Espino’s proposal, which heads to a board vote on Oct. 8, would establish the administrative hearings to process the 8,600 remaining challenges to citations and would also create a dedicated fund to track the program’s revenues and costs. But school board members are divided on how to handle the costs – and the program’s future.
Steve Gallon cautioned that his support for Espino’s proposal at this point is limited to clearing the backlog, not reviving the contract. Board member Luisa Santos suggested waiting until July 2026, when the tickets would expire, estimating it could cost the district at least $300,000 to pay for hearings. Monica Colucci said constituents have been calling her office with complaints and that the district should foot the cost of dealing with the backlog, aside from court fees individuals have to pay.
Superintendent Jose Dotres cautioned the board from promising to pay for the administrative fees for the contested tickets.
“We just have to be very cautious in saying that we are going to bear the cost,” he said.
Espino, who has been the program’s biggest champion, expressed hope that the new process for administrative hearings “could provide the sheriff comfort that there is a mechanism to contest” citations. Without the sheriff’s participation in the program, it cannot be reinstated.
UPDATE: At a Miami-Dade school board meeting on Oct. 8, the proposal was passed with several revisions, to be presented to the board in 60 days. The school board did not agree to explore the option of re-instating the contract with BusPatrol.
This story was originally published October 3, 2025 at 12:10 PM.
