ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca voiced support last week for a public-facing dashboard for school bus stop-arm camera data — a transparency tool that would offer new visibility into BusPatrol, the private company that equips school buses with automated cameras to record drivers who illegally pass them.
The dashboard, he said, would likely include only month-to-month data, not real-time data, but even that level of detail would represent a significant change for a system that has operated largely out of public view.
“It’s important to build the right dashboard,” Roca said in a lengthy interview Tuesday. “It would probably have to be something in collaboration with BusPatrol … because they receive the ultimate data.”
That data includes the notice of violations issued (approved/not approved), the number and monetary amount of fines and penalties collected each month, as well as the number of school buses installed with the BusPatrol system — data already required to be submitted to the Allentown School District each month based on its contract with BusPatrol.
The same data is required to be submitted to the state Department of Transportation for an annual report covering Pennsylvania's Automated School Bus Enforcement Program. The 2024 data was due July 1, with the report expected to be released by Dec. 31.
Roca’s comments and disclosure of the revenue generated follow a months-long LehighValleyNews.com investigation into BusPatrol’s operations in Allentown, and in several other Lehigh Valley districts that use the same enforcement system.
It also marks the first time a key stakeholder has publicly supported offering the community a clearer, regularly updated view of how the program operates, as BusPatrol explicitly partners with law enforcement agencies and school districts to implement and manage school bus safety and enforcement initiatives.
A system that stands apart
From September 2024 through October 2025, Allentown police approved 8,598 citations, or roughly 96% of all alleged violations captured by bus cameras. That proportion is significantly higher than in neighboring school districts.
The program generated nearly $640,000 in fines in Allentown during that period.
The citation approval data contrasts sharply with Salisbury, which approved 42% of violations in a 13-month period; Bethlehem approved 58%; Easton, 76%; and Wilson, 72%.
Allentown’s numbers stand apart both in volume and in the percentage of citations converted into $300 fines. Of each citation, the police department receives $25 and the state School Bus Safety Grant Program receives $25. The remaining $250 is divided between BusPatrol and the school district under their revenue-sharing agreement.
Roca attributed the city’s low rejection rate to what he described as thousands of “clear-cut” violations. He emphasized that being unaware or ignorant of the law does not excuse passing a school bus with its stop arm deployed.
“We are simply conducting the enforcement based upon how we were trained through PennDOT with officers that are looking at that situation (through video and photo evidence),” he said.
“I can only speak for the Allentown Police Department, but the way that we look at it is through, was the law followed, or was it not?
“And it's incumbent upon us as citizens to follow the law, because that's what it means to be living in a civil society, right?”
LehighValleyNews.com fought for months to obtain Allentown School District’s contract with BusPatrol and monthly citation and revenue reports the company attempted to keep secret. BusPatrol appealed state Office of Open Records rulings before withdrawing its case from Lehigh County Court and releasing the documents.
How police review violations
During Tuesday’s interview at the Allentown Police Department, “evidence packages” streamed into the system in real time.
Sgt. Craig Berger, head of the department’s traffic unit, is among the officers trained on the system who review multiple camera angles and photos for each alleged violation.
Because the citations are civil, rather than criminal, police do not conduct supplemental investigations.
They do not visit the scene, interview witnesses or seek additional footage. They simply determine whether the evidence meets PennDOT criteria and the Pennsylvania Vehicle Code for a stop-arm violation.
Berger said officers looks for a vehicle description and license plate matching the violation. They also look for a visual cue — a yellow or red dot in the top left corner of the video — that tells police amber visual signals preceded actuated red signal lights and deployment of the school bus stop arm.
“We get this stuff, face value, what people decide to do with it, you know, if they have a defense, they bring it up to PennDOT [hearing officers],” Roca said. “We’re not the judge or the jury in this.”
Roca said his officers disapprove violations when the evidence shows bus driver error or a failure to meet the legal standard. But he reiterated that the department sees the law, not driver confusion, as the guiding factor.
High-violation zones and limited public outreach
Some school bus routes generate significantly more violations than others, and none stand out more than a stretch of Hanover Avenue — one of the city’s busiest corridors.
One block in particular has produced an overwhelming amount of violations.
On Tuesday, video from the 600 block of Hanover showed nine cars passing a school bus with its stop arm extended. Eight of the nine were traveling in the opposite direction, but because the road lacks any physical divider or raised median, Pennsylvania law requires all traffic in both directions to stop.
Despite the persistent pattern of violations, Roca acknowledged no coordinated traffic engineering review, sign evaluation or targeted public education campaign has been launched at the hotspot directly because of school bus camera violations.
The department does use its Facebook page to educate followers on traffic safety and the school bus stop arm law, and also conducts periodic speed enforcement details — including a Nov. 12 operation on Hanover Avenue in which officers stopped nearly two dozen vehicles. One driver was traveling 49 mph, or nearly double the speed limit, in the 25 mph zone.
But Roca said broader public communication about Pennsylvania’s stop-arm laws has been limited. He stressed that while public agencies can always improve education efforts, driver behavior is a core problem.
“This lies with the drivers who are choosing to violate the law or the rules,” he said. “A lot of times people are in such a rush when they drive that a lot of it is self-absorbed behavior where you’re not focusing on what’s important.”
He also argued the law is readily accessible.
“The law is not difficult to find."Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca
“The law is not difficult to find,” he said. “A lot of times you see people scrolling on their phones that are around you. … There’s a lot of information that [is] sometimes at your fingertips. You need to type in, ‘What are the proper ways to stop at a bus in Pennsylvania,’ hit enter, and you’ll get a whole listing of items.”
Improvements, transparency
Roca said he supports more education — whether from the police, the district or BusPatrol — and repeatedly emphasized he is open to creating the dashboard.
“We want our residents to be informed," he said. "At the end of the day, we want to be transparent with our community, because the more that our community interacts with us and we interact with our community, that develops that relationship."
He acknowledged that the school bus camera system is not perfect, and bus drivers can make mistakes. Drivers who contest violations also face a significant wait for an appeal hearing, something the chief said should be addressed.
“I don’t think every system is perfect,” he said. “There could be an instance where a bus driver made an error, and that will be noted on the [internal] report.
“If that is the case, then that's where the data-informed decisions can be made to properly educate the bus drivers, because I know that they want to do a good job.”
But he also acknowledged that if someone believes they were wrongly cited, they should get a timely hearing.
“That's something that when we talk about room for improvement, that's an area where there should be room for improvement,” he noted, with significant backlogs at PennDOT leading to hearings being delayed more than a year, with some people reporting they’ve also received collections notices in the interim.
'Very real consequences'
Overall, Roca said the focus must remain on safety, not revenue.
“When I became chief, I was not ready to sign on [with BusPatrol] until things were worked out, because we want to make sure that we're entering a relationship that isn't exploiting our community, that isn't just a revenue generator, that isn't just something that's going to shame people.
“These are very real consequences. When I talk about very real consequences, it could impact a human life. And for me, as chief of police, one of my primary missions is to make sure that our community is safe, and I feel that the partnership with BusPatrol and the school district contributes to that emphasis of life safety.”
"We want to make sure that we're entering a relationship that isn't exploiting our community, that isn't just a revenue generator."Allentown Police Chief Charles Roca
As for broader collaboration with BusPatrol and the district, Roca again signaled openness.
“A transparency dashboard of some sort where people can actually see, hey, where is this happening? That'd be an interesting thing for people to know, because … we are looking at those evidence packages with professional seriousness, and we are looking at the resources from what we can see, and making that determination if it is a violation or if it isn't.
“If it is, it proceeds to that next step. If it's not a violation, we know the the reason, and we put that through as well. And as we go through the process, if we can make it where it's even better, I'm all for that. I'm all for positive future growth [with this system].”
LehighValleyNews.com reached out to the Allentown School District and BusPatrol to get their thoughts on the possibility of a public-facing dashboard in collaboration with the Allentown police.
In an email, a district spokesperson said they are "constantly collaborating with APD for ways to make our community safer, especially around our schools,” adding that the transportation director was unavailable for further comment until later this week.
BusPatrol did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, PennDOT confirmed last week there are more than 13,300 appeal hearings pending statewide.
In an attempt to alleviate the backlog, there soon will be a new written hearing option, allowing alleged violators to present written evidence to receive a determination.
"This option will, in theory, speed up the hearing process because it does not require an in-person or virtual hearing," said deputy communications director Jennifer Kuntch via email.
Kuntch said hearing officers will still review the video evidence, along with any written evidence provided by the alleged violator before issuing a determination letter. The only portion which will not occur is the video conference hearing.
The written hearing option is scheduled to roll out in January for cases going forward, she said.
