School Bus Surveillance (H 8523)

We strongly opposed this legislation, which would make significant changes to the law governing the operation of school bus cameras. We have previously registered our opposition to expansion of automated traffic enforcement systems, including the use of cameras within the school bus context. This bill only further highlights the troubling “mission creep” in the use of technology for law enforcement purposes and the ways such technology prompts questionable shortcuts in the effort to hold people liable. We noted numerous concerns, including:

• From the time that school bus camera monitoring system legislation was first introduced, we raised concerns about language that would allow this surveillance system to be inappropriately expanded in privacy-infringing ways.
• The bill would expand from 10 to 30 days the amount of time to notify a person of a violation, vastly reducingthe deterrent effect and the ability of the person to prepare any defenses to the violation. [Page 10, line 6]
• The bill would increase the percentage of the fine that would go to the vendor from 30% to 40%, only highlighting the money-making nature of this technology for private enterprise.
• The bill would substantially expand from twenty-four hours to a sweeping 90 days the amount of time that images generated by these cameras would be kept when no violation of the law was identified. [Page 14, lines 19-21]