Area school buses install stop-arm cameras

More than 20,000 violations have been issued since Orange County, N.Y., rolled out new, AI-powered stop-arm cameras to fine drivers who illegally pass school buses.

The initiative equips school buses across the county with cameras that take photos and videos of cars illegally passing stopped school buses.

Evidence is then reviewed and violations carrying a fee of at least $250 each are mailed to vehicle owners.

Nine Orange County school districts currently have operating stop-arm cameras:

• Newburgh City School District started in June 2024 and has issued 10,692 violations.

• Kiryas Joel School District started in June 2024 and has issued 3,839 violations.

• Middletown City School District started in September 2024 and has issued 4,290 violations.

• Goshen School District started in September 2024 and has issued 628 violations.

• Warwick Valley School District started in April 2025 and has issued 143 violations.

• Washingtonville School District started in June 2025 and has issued 710 violations.

• Monroe-Woodbury School District started in June 2025 and has issued 389 violations.

• Greenwood Lake School District started in June 2025 and has issued 16 violations.

• Highland Falls/Fort Montgomery School District started in August 2025 and has issued 59 violations.

• Minisink, Valley Central and Port Jervis Schools are currently having cameras installed, with plans to be live by Sept. 1.

Robert Doss, the deputy commissioner of the Orange County Department of Emergency Services and its police liaison, is hopeful that all public school districts, county-wide, will have stop-arm cameras installed by the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Private schools will follow.

Fined out

“This entire program is at no cost to the school district, it’s at no cost to the taxpayer, and it’s at no cost to the county government, which is the genius part of the whole thing” said Doss. “The whole entire program is paid for by the violators.”

As of press time, the county has issued 20,767 violations – totaling at least $5.1 million in fines – since the program started in select districts just over a year ago.

A portion of the revenue goes to the company the county uses to operate the cameras, BusPatrol, and the rest goes back to the county.

In addition to covering all installation and operation costs for the stop-arm cameras, the fines also cover the salaries of the part-time county employees – two retired police officers – who review footage before a violation is sent.

“Let’s say your car was suspected of going past a stopped school bus. It’s reviewed on the on the contractor’s end. Then it comes to the county, we review it,” explained Doss. The county’s employees “review the evidence, the video, the photos and the other documentation along with it, and they confirm the license plates are correct.”

Doss said the county “approves” about 60 percent of the violations.

“They’re not approving every proposed violation that comes through, because they have a very strict standard. If it’s a really close call, they’re not issuing that violation because we want a high integrity program here.”

Fines are issued according to the license plate number. It can’t add points to your license or affect insurance, but fines do increase an additional $25, up to a total of $300, for repeat offenders.

Doss said the plan is to use excess revenue to implement new school safety initiatives.

“The county executive has made it a very important point that he wants that money reinvested back into school safety,” said Doss. “And that’s what we’re doing.”

Streamlining safety

Districts without stop-arm programs in place work hard to try to hold reckless drivers accountable.

Vernon Township School District in Sussex County, N.J., has cameras on its buses, though school officials must manually report violations to the police.

“We do have cameras on all of our buses, some of which are forward facing, and a lot of times we can get video footage of the cars that do go through, and we forward that to our police department,” explained the district’s Transportation Coordinator Marisa Broesder.

The Delaware Valley School District in Pike County, Pa., relies on its bus drivers for enforcement. Typically, when someone passes illegally, bus drivers will pull their horns and attempt to get a license plate number to report to police, said Marvin Eversdyke, the district’s director of support services.

Greenwood Lake School District recently had stop-arm cameras installed in June.

Beforehand, “violations could only be issued by a police officer who witnessed the violation,” said Ronald Mackey, Greenwood Lake’s transportation supervisor. “It’s very difficult to get a six- or seven-digit license plate, description of the driver when our primary focus is making sure that kids are getting off the bus safely.”

Driving results

Efforts go beyond correcting driver behavior: Orange County is analyzing the data provided by stop-arm cameras to pinpoint problem-areas – then working with local schools and law enforcement to make changes.

“We can look at certain locations or hotspots,” said Doss. “So what we ask the school district to do is please review this school bus stop:

“Are the kids crossing there?

“Can we make the stop on the return rather, so the kids aren’t crossing?

“Do we need that stop there?

“Can we move it to a safer location?”

And then, the county informs local law enforcement “so they could put a police car there and follow up differently ... that violation would go to the driver,” explained Doss. “That ticket is now eight points.”

For local school bus drivers, the stop-arm cameras are a relief.

“We don’t want students being hit by passing motorists,” said Mackey, Greenwood Lake’s transportation supervisor. “Unfortunately, there are too many people that are distracted – that just don’t see the big yellow bus ... the red lights flashing - and they drive through far too often.

“We are happy to have the program in place.”