PITTSBURGH — 11 Investigates has uncovered new details about a controversial school bus ticketing program. It uses artificial intelligence and cameras to catch drivers who are accused of illegally passing stopped school buses. New data suggests that the majority of drivers are not at fault and their tickets don’t hold up, while the bus camera company profits millions.
11 Investigates has been following the money for over a year. Nearly every day, we’ve gotten emails from people who want us to look into their tickets.
Mekala Frangos was the first person to reach out to 11 Investigates about these automated school bus enforcement programs, like BusPatrol.
It was November of 2023 when she was ticketed by Pittsburgh Public School police. She was on the other side of a divided highway with a barrier when she drove past a school bus with its stop arm out. That’s not illegal. She and roughly seven other vehicles, including another school bus, were ticketed.
“Just on principle, I’d spend $2,000 to fight it before I will pay the school system,” Frangos told 11 Investigates.
Back then she called these automated school bus enforcement tickets, a money grab. Today she says the same holds true.
“The gotcha moment was when the police officer with the school system said is that center divide needs to be a certain height,” Frangos said. “Don’t let them hustle you!”
We got our hands on a copy of a 2023 annual report compiled by the state, with the most recent data from automated stop-arm enforcement cameras. At the time this report was written, mandatory reporting by school districts was not state law.
The state reached out to 44 districts for data, including Pittsburgh Public Schools. PPS, which uses BusPatrol’s system, did not provide any information.
The report says 93 to 100% of people paid the $300 ticket.
0-7% of tickets were fought in court and of those tickets that were contested, a majority, 56% were thrown out by the judge.
Of the 28 school districts that provided data, $7 million in fines were imposed.
Nearly $4 million of that money went directly to the school bus camera company and close to a $1 million more went to the school districts whose buses are equipped with the cameras and the local police departments approving the tickets.
“We can all see through the hustle and the hustle is collecting as many $300 as possible from every single resident,” Frangos added.
11 Investigates reached out to Pittsburgh Public Schools for the following, which is mandated by state law to be submitted to PennDOT and PA State Police and posted to the district’s publicly available website this year.
-Name Of System Administrator
-Number Of Buses With Side Stop Signal Arm Enforcement System
-Number Of Violations Issued
-Amount Of Fines Imposed And Collected
-Amounts Paid Under Agreements Authorized Under The Law
-Results Of Contested Violations
-Use Of Additional Revenue And Grants Awarded From Program
Pittsburgh Public Schools sent us a statement that said:
“Pittsburgh Public Schools is actively working to assemble this report in compliance with state law. We intend to produce this information in short order. Once completed, we will post it to our publicly available website as required.”
That information was never provided to 11 Investigates nor was it posted to the district’s publicly available website.
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