A Polk County bus camera monitoring contract with Verra Mobility calls for $49 payments for each traffic violation that meets specific criteria, but such payments are banned under state law.
With students already back at Polk County Public Schools this week, district officials are now acknowledging that its much-hyped school bus camera enforcement system contract requires additional clarifying language to ensure compliance with state law. The controversy stems from the compensation scheme agreed to with Verra Mobility, the company tasked with implementing school bus safety cameras across the district. A provision in the contract appears to conflict with Florida law outlawing per incident payment schemes.
The contract includes a clause that allows Verra Mobility to receive $49 for specific driving violations captured by the company’s camera systems and sent to law enforcement for review. The violation referrals, cryptically described as “issued event packages,” contain incidents captured by the camera system that meet specific rules, specifically those involving cars passing school buses when the stop sign arm is extended from the side of the bus.
The original contract includes two examples for how the payment collections would work. The examples provide a hypothetical scenario in which Verra Mobility expects to be paid $160,000 for a month in which 1,000 “violations” are processed and a $200 fine is paid by each driver. In the example the payments include both a fixed per camera fee of $225, plus $49 for each of the 1,000 violations. A second example in same paragraph supposes that in a subsequent month that Verra Mobility processes 1,500 violations, they would invoice Polk County for $183,825, which includes the per camera fees and the $49 payment for each violation, plus an additional carryover from the previous month.
Critics say that such “per event” fee structures spur traffic camera companies and their government partners to be overly aggressive with traffic enforcement and fine collection efforts. And in fact, Verra Mobility has faced criticism in other states over the practice. A news investigation in Atlanta alleged that Verra Mobility traffic camera systems had been used to unfairly ticket drivers outside of school hours or outside of school zones.
Here in Florida, state lawmakers took a step earlier this year to curb the “per violation” payment practice. Senate Bill 994, passed by the Florida Legislature and signed by Governor Ron DeSantis, explicitly bans private vendors from collecting payments based on the number of violations detected through school bus camera systems. The bill language makes clear that a “private vendor or manufacturer may not receive a fee of remuneration based upon the number of violations detected through the use of a school bus infraction detection system.”
After a series of questions sent to both Verra Mobility and Polk County pointing out the potential legal conflict, Polk County School District officials, while denying that the contract is illegal, admitted that they are working to make changes to the language in the contract to clarify the payment structure.
“We do not believe this payment method is in violation of Florida statute,” wrote Jason Geary, Senior Director of Communications with Polk County Public Schools. But Geary also acknowledged that school officials “are now working with Verra Mobility to update the language of our contract to better explain this payment method and how our business rules must be applied to submissions.”
For its part, Verra Mobility explicitly denied that the $49 payment called for in the contract for each “issued event package” was illegal.
“The “$49 fee per issued event package sent to law enforcement” in our contract with Polk County Public Schools is not “for each driving violation captured by the company’s school bus system,” nor is it “based on the number of violations detected through the use of a school bus infraction detection system,”” wrote Verra Mobility spokeswoman Valerie Schneider in an email to The Capitolist. “Our fees under the contract are a fixed amount based on the “installation, operation and maintenance of the school bus” as permitted by Florida law.”
But it’s unclear how the company can claim the payments are “fixed” when it varies based explicitly upon the number of traffic violations that meet specific criteria and are sent to law enforcement to issue a citation.
At the same time, how Polk County’s proposed clarifying language might fix the problem also remains unclear. The contract with Verra Mobility was awarded earlier this year, with the program set to launch at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. Officials say the systems, while already installed, are not issuing any citations, yet.
“We want to reassure the public that our program meets statutory requirements, and clarifying the language of our contract should help dispel any misconceptions,” Geary noted in the email. “Fortunately, we have time to do this. No one has received a violation. We are only issuing warnings at this time. We are still conducting our planned 60-day public awareness campaign, and this gives us additional time to address the contract language with Verra Mobility.”
The Capitolist will continue to monitor the deployment of the Polk County Public Schools camera system and its contract renegotiations with Verra Mobility.