Schoolbuses: stop requirements.

Existing law requires the driver of any vehicle, upon meeting or overtaking any schoolbus equipped with required signs that is stopped for the purpose of loading or unloading any schoolchildren and displaying a flashing red light signal and stop signal arm, if equipped with a stop signal arm, to bring the vehicle to a stop immediately before passing the schoolbus and to not proceed past the schoolbus until the flashing red light signal and stop signal arm cease operation. A violation of these provisions is a crime. This bill would authorize a school district to install and operate an automated video traffic enforcement system, as defined, for the purpose of enforcing the prohibition described above. The bill would allow school districts to contract with private vendors for the equipment, operation, and maintenance of an automated video traffic enforcement system, under certain circumstances, and create working agreements with local jurisdictions and local law enforcement. The bill would require the video enforcement system images to capture only the vehicle make and model, color, and license plate displayed, and not any person in the vehicle or any other vehicles or persons in the vicinity of the vehicle. The bill would make any information, image, or other data captured or generated by the automated video enforcement system confidential, and, unless demanded by court order, available only to the law enforcement agency or offender for limited purposes. The bill would require additional signage on schoolbuses relative to the video enforcement system. The bill would prohibit a school district from using automated schoolbus video enforcement systems or information gathered from those systems for any purpose other than those authorized by these provisions and would specifically prohibit the use of video or images captured by a system for employee surveillance or discipline. The bill would allow the State Board of Education to adopt standards, rules, and regulations to address privacy concerns arising from the use of an automated video traffic enforcement system. The bill would require a school district that operates an automated video traffic enforcement system to provide notice to people in the district and to send warning letters in lieu of citations for violations captured by the system during the first 90 days. The bill would allow for some reduced penalties when a violation was captured by an automated video traffic enforcement system. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.