School bus stop-arm cameras prove effective, yet many local districts can’t use them

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Every day, kids across the metro, getting on and off the school bus, face a deadly threat: drivers who ignore flashing lights and stop signs. There is technology that can save lives, but it is rarely used here.

“Five seconds, five minutes that you wait is not going to kill you, but it might a child,” said Kansas City Public Schools parent and Zum bus driver Anallive Calle.

You’ve probably seen it: a car speeding past a stopped school bus while kids get on or off. It’s a problem across the metro, but one district is catching these violations more often thanks to new technology.

Platte County R-3 School District

Since this August, the Platte County R-3 School District has had more than 90 stop-arm violations.

“The important thing is that people just need to pay attention,” said Platte County R-3 School District director of transportation JT Thomas.

These violations are caught on camera. They’ve caught an Amazon driver scooting past a stopped bus to a car driving past the bus, but a Platte City Police officer was behind the bus and pulled them over.

The district just upgraded to these cameras from the company, Transportant, this school year.

“It is such a game changer,” said Thomas.

In August 2023, the district added stop arm cameras. Thomas said that in that school year, they sent seven letters to the Missouri Highway Patrol for violations.

“We started capturing more, but we were still hampered by the fact of being able to get good pictures of the license plates,” said Thomas.

These new cameras, of high quality, easily catch the license plate, resulting in more than 90 violations, meaning the technology is getting better, not the drivers.

“With a stop arm, we have to identify the license plate and the driver, possibly as well as the vehicle, before the highway patrol or police can do anything with it,” said Thomas.

Thomas said the support of local law enforcement and the prosecutor’s office has allowed the technology to play a key role in issuing these violations.

Though these come at a cost. These systems can include the camera, wifi, GPS, and other technologies, which can cost anywhere from $695 to $2,500. Platte County has 50 buses with this technology.

“It has proven well worth it. Well worth it,” said Thomas. “I don’t care so much about people getting fines; I want people to start paying attention.”

With Platte County’s number of violations being so high, what are other districts experiencing?

Kansas City Public Schools

Just down the road is the Kansas City Public Schools. It works with the company Zum for its bus system.

“We are carrying precious cargo,” said Calle.

A mom and bus driver, Calle has three kids in the KCPS bus system. She said it is convenient for her family, but she has her safety concerns.

“My biggest thing as a parent, and a driver, and the community itself, notice the color, it is big, bright, stop, slow down,” said Calle.

Zum sees these violations just as often as Platte County.

“We are having them every day, multiple routes. People who are just not paying attention or don’t care that children are loading on and off the buses,” said KCPS Bus Service’s Zum safety manager Jacob Coker.

Zum has cameras on the buses that face the stop arms, but these are not the same as Platte County’s. With the quality being low, there is a gap in catching these drivers.

“We try to pull video when we can, but some of these vehicles are going so fast we are not even able to catch them on video, or they just don’t have license plates,” said Coker. “We want to increase our technology and get better cameras so we can get better visuals on the individual vehicles that are doing these things.”

Cost is just one barrier to adding these; across state lines, it takes more than just a camera to address these violations.

Gardner Edgerton School District

KCTV5 Investigates rode along one afternoon bus route with the Gardner Edgerton School District. During that route, KCTV5 cameras caught at least seven drivers passing by the stopped bus.

“We have multiple every single day, and the sad thing is it almost gets to be commonplace to where bus drivers just know if I put this stop arm out, I’m gonna have to wait for all the people to get by that are too busy to stop for this stop arm,” said Gardner Edgerton School District Superintendent, Dr. Brian Huff.

In Kansas, the law does not address the use of these cameras for traffic enforcement, according to the Kansas Legislative Research Department.

“Part of it, the law needs to get leveled out first, and I’m not convinced that it is there yet,” said Dr. Huff.

Without legal authority for the cameras, Dr. Huff said they work with the Gardner Police Department to increase patrols in hot spots.

“We have that good working relationship, but we still have a lot of violations,” said Dr. Huff.

Gardner Police sends out letters that give people an understanding of what was done and what to know; these are usually a warning.

The numbers

KCTV5 Investigates reached out to multiple police departments and school districts in both Missouri and Kansas to see what the number of violations looks like compared to Platte County.

Here is what was found:

Many of these departments shared the numbers from 2025 are from earlier this year, before the new school year started.

From North Kansas City to Spring Hill, a lot of these districts do not have these cameras. They tell KCTV5 they are constantly monitoring the technology available, and some districts said this could be an option in the future.

Current laws

In the state of Kansas, certain laws pertain to when you need to stop for a school bus. A brochure provided by the Kansas Department of Education explained when you need to stop.

In Missouri, the Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety shares when and where you need to stop for a school bus dropping off kids. Read more here.

What can be done

Districts say that without the cameras, you either need police nearby or have the bus driver catch the license plate while already juggling the kids and traffic.

“It is incredibly difficult, and you’re right, we expect them to do a whole lot,” said Dr. Huff.

But every district agrees, safety can’t take a back seat.

“If you hit one of those kids, you’ll kill them, and that’s nobody wants to do that,” said Thomas.

The last time Kansas lawmakers tried to change the law for school bus cameras was in 2023, but nothing came of it.

In Missouri, lawmakers in Jefferson City last tried to change things for enforcement in 2022.

Districts say that stronger laws and backing from local law enforcement are what’s really needed to use these cameras to make sure that drivers pay for these violations and start paying attention.