The company that operates the Warren County School District’s school bus camera system is recommending minor changes to the way municipalities in New York state prosecute violations in the wake of a New York appeals court decision in November.

The Warren County School District entered into an agreement with BusPatrol in 2020 to provide internal and external cameras on all buses used for the district’s transportation. BusPatrol touted its agreement with the Warren County School District as its first in western Pennsylvania. There were 40 tickets in the first two months Warren used the system, 30 in the first month and 10 in the second.

Prosecutors in New York statewide have been asked to include in their evidence when they try a stop-arm camera violation case additional evidence that BusPatrol already had available to prosecutors but that typically hadn’t been used in the past. No additional equipment will be necessary.

Judges in the state Appellate Division’s Second Department ruled in three cases, the first coming in November, that the tickets driver’s received were insufficient to prove the drivers’ guilt of passing a stopped school bus while students were getting on or off the bus.

At issue is the prosecution of a stop-arm violation ticket in October 2021 in Patchogue, with the driver taking his ticket to a nonjury trial. The video depicting the violation was reviewed by the court, with attorneys for the Suffolk County Traffic Prosecutor’s Office providing evidence that a technician’s certificate certified the alleged violation. The technician said she inspected the recorded images presented in court and that they were true and accurate copies and represented the recorded images which she had reviewed. The court then found the driver liable for a $250 fine.

The driver appealed, saying the traffic prosecutor hasn’t proved the bus was a school bus marked and equipped as required under state law or that it had stopped for the purpose of picking up or discharging passengers, also a requirement in state law. All three members of the appellate court agreed with the driver that the ticket should be dismissed because the camera system didn’t provide enough evidence to prove the driver was guilty under the 2019 state law authorizing stop-arm cameras.

In particular, the court said no one said the bus was marked and equipped with proper flashing lights showing the bus is a school bus, that the video recording didn’t establish the bus was a school bus under state law and that there was no evidence of students getting on or off the bus.

“Even if the proof need only establish “substantial compliance” with the statutory requirements, the trial evidence fell far short of that standard,” the court wrote in its unanimous decision.

Two other cases – including one in late February – have been decided the same way by the Second Department Appellate Division justices using the first case as precedent. The cases are precedent only in the judicial districts that fall under the Second Department Appellate Division, not statewide courts.

Tickets aren’t issued by BusPatrol. BusPatrol uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to sort through all of its camera footage to determine if enough evidence exists to send a violation notice. The AI information is reviewed by a person and then confirmed by a second BusPatrol employee before being reviewed by another team before the package of evidence is sent to the local municipality, which then makes the choice to send the ticket.

The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) now has the program guidelines for the School Bus Side Stop Signal Arm Enforcement Systems with further instructions on the hearing process and other reminders for the program. Act 19 of 2023 now allows school districts to install and operate automated camera systems to enforce Pennsylvania’s School Bus Stopping Law. Also under the law, a car owner has the right to request a hearing to contest liability before a PennDOT hearing officer at no cost to the owner.

The updated law also requires an annual report for school districts with the cameras and they will be prepared jointly with PennDOT and the Pennsylvania State Police. The reports are required to include such information as the number of school buses equipped with a side stop signal arm enforcement system; the number of notices of violation issued; the amount of fines imposed and collected; the amounts paid under agreements authorized under the law; the results of contested violations and the use of additional revenue funds and any grants awarded from the program.