School Bus Cameras Might Now Be Used For Traffic Surveillance

A surveillance company, BusPatrol, which contracts with school districts to install cameras in school buses for security and safety  purposes, has come under fire. As reported by 404 Media, BusPatrol intends to make data collected by portable license plate scanners on school buses available to law enforcement. The company's cameras currently photograph individuals who don't stop when the bus stop-arm is extended with a stop-arm camera. 

According to the report, BusPatrol cameras will take a photo of every car that passes by a school bus that is equipped with their system. This information, which would include GPS location, would be searchable by location and license plate. A major concern raised about the plan is that such searches will not require a search warrant from law enforcement.

BusPatrol has successfully partnered with law enforcement to issue tickets for failing to properly stop for school buses for years. The company records failure to stop incidents and sends them to local law enforcement for review. If local law enforcement determines the law was broken, a citation is mailed to the vehicle owner. As reported by Bloomberg, in Montgomery County, MD, 11,500 tickets were issued over a decade at one particular stop. Across the whole county, $92 million has been issued in fines for over 375,000 tickets. 

Other surveillance camera systems – both public and private- like Ring (a brand owned by Amazon) and Flock have been criticized for sharing data with law enforcement. And, there is evidence that law enforcement may have abused such technology. Including an investigation of the location of a woman in Texas who had an abortion,  and providing information to ICE. Red flags are being raised, and it's not yet clear whether school districts or local governments will intervene, or if BusPatrol will back away from integrating this level of surveillance. BusPatrol is heavily embedded within the US school bus system. 35,000 buses in 24 states and over 350 school districts use Buspatrol cameras.

Similar plans were walked back by Amazon in 2026. Originally, Ring cameras were to be integrated into the Flock surveillance ecosystem. However, due to backlash, Amazon canceled a safety partnership with Flock in February 2026 but still insisted that the feature would be useful in a catastrophic event. Some have taken to tearing down Flock cameras, demonstrating the level of frustration with such surveillance.