Massachusetts school buses are getting cameras to catch drivers who ignore the stop arm

Chicopee rolls out a state first

Chicopee is about to become the first city in Massachusetts to catch drivers who blow past stopped school buses, using cameras instead of cops. The program goes live on April 6.

Mayor John Vieau announced the launch on Feb. 25 at Chicopee Comprehensive High School. The city teamed up with BusPatrol, a school bus safety technology company, to outfit its fleet.

Ten buses already have cameras, and the rest are on the way.

AI cameras catch every angle

The system puts AI-powered cameras on the front, back, and sides of each bus. When a driver extends the stop arm and the red lights flash, the cameras turn on automatically.

If a car passes illegally, the system records video, grabs the license plate number, and logs the vehicle’s make and model. That footage goes straight to the Chicopee Police Department.

Officers review each clip and decide whether to mail a citation to the car’s registered owner.

A new state law made it possible

Gov. Maura Healey signed the law on Jan. 10, 2025, after the Legislature passed it on Dec. 30, 2024. State Sen. Michael Moore led the push.

The law gives every city and town in Massachusetts the option to put cameras on their school buses. Any bus carrying the cameras must post signs letting people know they are being recorded.

Chicopee moved first, but other communities can follow under the same law.

Fines get steep after the first offense

Drivers caught illegally passing a stopped school bus face a minimum $250 fine for a first offense. Get caught a second time, and the fine jumps to at least $500.

A third violation can cost up to $2,000 and lead to a license suspension for up to a year. The citation goes to whoever owns the car, not necessarily whoever drove it.

The city mails the ticket after police review the camera footage.

Taxpayers do not pay a dime

The whole program runs on fines. Chicopee paid nothing for the equipment or installation, and the ongoing costs come entirely from drivers who break the law. Ten buses carry cameras right now.

The city plans to have all 74 district buses equipped by summer 2026.

BusPatrol covers the upfront costs and recoups them from violation revenue, a model the company uses in school districts across the country.

Pilot data showed a big problem

A pilot program in Peabody tracked 10 school buses between September 2023 and May 2024. Those buses recorded about 3,400 illegal passes, roughly 2.3 per bus every day.

The first week of back-to-school was the worst, with about 3.8 violations per bus per day. Salem ran a similar pilot and found the same pattern.

That data helped lawmakers build the case for the statewide law Gov. Healey eventually signed.

The law limits what cameras capture

Massachusetts built privacy rules into the law. The cameras avoid capturing images of people inside vehicles and focus only on the car itself.

Any footage that does not show a violation must be destroyed within 30 days. Once a case wraps up, all related data must be deleted within a year.

School districts using the system also have to file annual reports to the state, keeping the program transparent.

Other states already use these cameras

Massachusetts is joining a growing wave. More than two dozen states now allow school bus stop-arm cameras.

Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and Maine all have programs running already.

The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services estimates drivers illegally pass school buses more than 43 million times per school year nationwide.

That number helped push state after state to adopt camera enforcement.

Drivers and school leaders pushed for change

The people closest to the problem see it every day.

Nathan Lecrenski, vice president of Five Star Bus and a former bus driver, said drivers report close calls nearly every day.

Chicopee Superintendent Marcus Ware said there have been cases where drivers ran bus stop signs and students nearly got hurt.

Chicopee Police Chief Eric Watson said the cameras strengthen enforcement even when no officer is nearby.

Problems have popped up in other states

These programs have not gone smoothly everywhere. In Miami-Dade County, Fla., the sheriff stopped BusPatrol’s program in 2025 after finding major errors in the citations sent to drivers.

In Rockland County, N.Y., about 90% of contested tickets ended up dismissed in traffic court in 2024.

A Pennsylvania state senator reviewed BusPatrol footage and said nearly half the violations he looked at should never have been issued.

Critics have also raised safety concerns about forcing drivers to stop suddenly on high-speed roads.

More cities could follow Chicopee

All 74 Chicopee buses should have cameras by summer 2026.

Other Massachusetts cities and towns can start their own programs under the same law whenever they are ready.

Supporters say the cameras change driver behavior over time, though no independent federal study has confirmed how well they work overall. For now, Chicopee is the test case, and the rest of the state will be watching.

What Massachusetts drivers need to know

When a school bus has its red lights flashing and stop arm out, every driver must stop completely. That goes for cars coming from both directions, unless a physical barrier like a median divides the road.

Drivers also cannot follow within 100 feet behind a school bus. The big change now is that cameras can catch violations even when no police officer is around.

Starting April 6, that applies in Chicopee.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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