Connecticut towns are implementing AI-powered license plate reading cameras on school buses to help monitor and catch drivers who illegally pass stopped buses. Over a dozen towns, including Vernon, Bridgeport, Danbury, Shelton, Stratford, North Haven, and New Haven, have partnered with BusPatrol, a company that installs the technology and shares footage with local police. The cameras only activate when a school bus is stopped with its warning lights and stop arm extended, according to BusPatrol. In New Haven, where the system was deployed on over 300 buses earlier this year, the cameras have recorded more than 12,000 incidents. Vernon Police Chief Marc Petruzzi said the technology was introduced to prevent potential tragedies, emphasizing that passing a stopped school bus is one of the most dangerous actions a driver can take. In just the first three days of the program, nearly 100 motorists were caught on camera. Despite the safety benefits, some residents have raised concerns about the privacy implications of the technology. Dan Piper, an organizer with the CT Civil Liberties Defense Committee, has called for a ban on the cameras, citing worries about data being shared with federal immigration enforcement or other AI surveillance systems. He argued that the use of such cameras could result in personal information being stored in private databases used for surveillance. BusPatrol responded by stating that its systems are regulated by the state where they are installed and that the company only retains data as long as necessary for law enforcement review or by legal requirement. Once a citation is finalized, all data is deleted, and by default, it belongs to the school district. Passing a stopped school bus has been illegal in Connecticut for decades, but enforcement has been difficult. Over the past six years, there have been 12 fatalities and 23 serious injuries involving school buses in the state, though it's unclear how many of those involved vehicles passing buses with their lights on. Penalties for the offense were recently updated in 2024, with fines set at $250 for first-time violations caught on camera, compared to $450 for those caught by officers in person. Connecticut now has the highest number of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) per capita in New England, according to DeFlock, a tracking organization. Nearly 800 ALPRs have been installed across the state, and concerns have grown after reports showed that Connecticut’s cameras were accessed thousands of times by out-of-state agencies enforcing federal immigration laws and other states’ abortion laws. Some residents have opposed the technology at town meetings, questioning whether the cameras have effectively reduced crime. Governor Ned Lamont recently called for a 30-day pause on the installation of new ALPRs by municipalities while guidelines on data retention and sharing are developed by the Connecticut Police Officers Standards and Training Council. However, the pause does not specifically apply to the school bus-mounted cameras.