PITTSBURGH — 11 Investigates is following the money collected from tickets from people accused of passing stopped school buses.
BusPatrol’s cameras which use AI to catch drivers breaking the law, are rolling on 217 Pittsburgh Public School Buses. Pittsburgh Public School Police then review the footage from BusPatrol and determine whether or not a violation should be mailed out.
11 Investigates filed Right to Know Requests and learned 18-percent of people who get a ticket, fight it. Most pay the $300 fine and move on.
Everyone we talked to agrees that people who pass stopped school buses, break the law and put children in danger, should be ticketed.
“They serve a purpose,” Jerry Korman tells 11 Investigates. “I imagine the drivers are not thrilled about it.”
In May of 2024, Penndot took over hearings for people fighting their tickets from local magistrates. 11 Investigates learned in the nine months since PennDOT took over, Pittsburgh public schools mailed out 9,028 tickets.
At $300 a pop, that’s $2,708,400 In revenue.
Pittsburgh Public Schools says BusPatrol was paid $1,743,887.95 in those 9 months, while the school district whose police approve the tickets, got $951,000 in revenue.
“They’re making money off the tickets?” Brian Fulton asked. “The police officers who cite them? Yeah ... No. I didn’t know that, but no, they definitely should not. If they’re getting that much money, the system in which they ticket people seems to be flawed.”
BusPatrol tells 11 Investigates, that revenue figure doesn’t tell the whole story because the company has made significant investments. BusPatrol says the Pittsburgh Public Schools safety program model costs taxpayers nothing, adding the following:
“BusPatrol funds the technology infrastructure, installs internal cameras that benefit the school district’s transportation operations, and covers the cost of maintaining the fleet, administering the program, and have invested over $100,000 in public safety awareness campaigns to educate drivers of the law,” a spokersperson for the company says. “Revenue collections help pay down this upfront investment—an investment the city didn’t have to make itself to protect its students.”
“From everything I hear, the school district could use a few extra bucks these days,” Jerry Korman added.
To handle the workload of people fighting their tickets, the state added positions. PennDOT now has eight full-time employees, including one Senior Legal Analyst Supervisor and seven Legal Analysts.
11 Investigates dug into the salaries to fill each of these positions.
It’s roughly a half to ¾ of a million dollars each year. PennDOT is fronting the cost of the salaries and is supposed to be reimbursed by the district or BusPatrol.
BusPatrol tells 11 Investigates that PennDOT receives compensation when Pittsburgh’s contested tickets receive a hearing.
“To date, PennDOT has received over $75,000 to help offset the costs for hearings and hearing officers,” a spokesperson for BusPatrol added.
11 Investigates continues to extend an offer to interview Pittsburgh Public Schools and BusPatrol about the school bus safety program in place.
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