Bus camera tickets not being heard by Suffolk traffic court as program reviewed

Suffolk County Traffic and Parking Violations Agency has suspended hearings for contested school bus camera tickets, leaving thousands of drivers in limbo as they wait for their day in court.

Since early December, hearings for 9,076 disputed tickets have been placed on an indefinite hold, according to Suffolk County spokesman Michael Martino. This follows a late-November decision by the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court that overturned a Suffolk bus camera ticket, which has been used to dismiss four other Suffolk bus citations on appeal.

The Suffolk traffic agency “is now focused on reviewing outstanding notices so that those who seek a hearing can have their day in court and those who broke the law are held responsible for their infraction,” Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said in a statement, adding that a “well-managed” program is critical. People waiting for hearings are not subject to late fees.

Meanwhile, tickets, which carry fines starting at $250, are still being issued. But drivers who choose to challenge their tickets have been concerned about not getting a court date and were never informed why.

Iris Levine, a paralegal from Lindenhurst, has been waiting a year to dispute her Feb. 28, 2023, ticket. Learning from a reporter that all hearings have been paused brought her little relief.

“I have been denied my due process,” she said. “I timely answered my ticket. It is their job to set up a court date for me.”

More than 102,596 school bus camera tickets were issued in 2023, according to Martino. Drivers have the option to pay or request a court hearing, according to the citation they get in the mail.

The program generated more than $21 million in revenue in 2023, with 55% going to the county and 45% to the vendor, BusPatrol, based in Lorton, Virginia.

Since the BusPatrol safety monitoring program rolled out in 2021, it has come under fire from frustrated drivers and several Republican elected officials, who have pointed out potential flaws with the program, including being ticketed on busy multilane highways while traveling opposite the bus, not having enough time to stop for a deployed arm and being ticketed in areas where students are not visibly getting on or off the bus.

Proponents have said Suffolk's bus camera program, launched under former County Executive Steve Bellone's administration, is an important safety tool to protect students.

Suffolk County would not make Bryan Browns, the head of the county's Traffic and Parking Violations Agency, available for an interview, and would not specify what its review entails, what changes might be coming and any timeline for when court hearings might restart.

Drivers frustrated by tickets

Levine said she was driving on Montauk Highway in Lindenhurst in the opposite direction of the bus and it would have been unsafe for her to slam on her brakes.

She said not holding the hearing is “an admission on some level that the program is ineffective,” she said.

Rona Fried, of Huntington Station, is another motorist who has been waiting months to argue her December 2023 ticket in front of a judge. Since asking for a court hearing within the 30 days given to respond, she said she received only a letter back explaining there are no court dates currently available due to a backlog of cases.

Fried said she doesn’t trust the process and worries about what’s at stake, including that she'll be hit by late fees on top of the $250 fine, despite what the county says.

“It’s the constant pressure on citizens. It’s not like we don’t pay high taxes already,” she added.

The three-judge panel decision on driver Alfred Croce's case that has upended the program found the tickets lacked sufficient evidence, mainly by failing to establish the vehicle was a school bus and students were being dropped off or picked up. Croce lost in traffic court before appealing.

In light of the Croce decision, some lawyers said it was a good move for the county to pause the hearings, suggesting it may signal some modifications are in the works.

Lawyer David Raimondo said he believes the Croce decision will cause the county to re-evaluate its contract with BusPatrol.

Scott Lockwood, an attorney with offices in Deer Park, appealed a client’s ticket and won in appellate court. He felt pausing traffic hearings in Suffolk is “a smart decision,” because “they got overruled by an appellate court saying this was improper.”

BusPatrol said the program is working to boost safety.

According to BusPatrol spokesperson Kate Spree, the number of people being ticketed on a monthly basis has dropped 42% since the program began in 2021 — from 17,260 to about 10,000 a month — despite 700 more buses with cameras on the road.

“It is our understanding that Suffolk County is currently reviewing the backlog of contested tickets with notifications going out to those who are responsible for paying their fines,” Spree said in a statement. “We cannot speak for Suffolk TPVA as to their approach to scheduling … hearings.”

In Nassau, County Executive Bruce Blakeman left the program up to town government officials. The Town of Hempstead’s program has been fully operational for a year.

Nassau County Traffic and Parking Violations Agency, however, conducts the hearings for contested tickets. Scheduling of those hearings has not stopped, according to Blakeman spokesman Chris Boyle.

More than 1,500 tickets issued to drivers in Hempstead were adjudicated in Nassau’s TPVA — 1,170 in 2023 and 423 in 2024, Boyle said.

The revenue-sharing breakdown is similar between BusPatrol and the Town of Hempstead as in Suffolk. Dollar figures from 2023 were not immediately available for the Hempstead program.