‘BusPatrol’ Put AI Cameras in Tens of Thousands of School Buses. Now They Want to Give Cops Access
BusPatrol plans to expand its AI camera system in school buses to include automatic license plate reading capabilities. This change would allow the collection of data on all vehicles passing by, which could then be shared with law enforcement. The initiative has raised concerns about privacy and the potential misuse of the data, particularly regarding its access by agencies like ICE.
- ▪BusPatrol has installed AI-powered cameras in over 40,000 school buses across 24 states.
- ▪The company plans to transform these cameras into automatic license plate readers, capturing data on all vehicles the buses pass.
- ▪There are significant concerns about the implications of this data collection, particularly regarding privacy and potential misuse by law enforcement.
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| Original publisher | 404 Media |
| Canonical URL | https://www.404media.co/buspatrol-put-ai-cameras-in-tens-of-thousands-of-school-buses-now-they-want-to-give-cops-access/ |
| Publication time | Tue, 26 May 2026 13:49:22 GMT |
| Retrieval time | 2026-05-26T13:52:49.498Z |
| Last seen | 2026-05-26T13:52:49.498Z |
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
BusPatrol, a company that has installed AI-powered cameras in tens of thousands of school buses around the U.S., now plans to turn those cameras into automatic license plate readers (ALPRs), capturing the location of every vehicle the buses drive past, and give that data to law enforcement, 404 Media has learned. The plan will essentially transform school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles, taking a technology that was originally designed to issue tickets to people illegally passing stopped buses and using it for much wider and general law enforcement, likely without a warrant.BusPatrol has already taken steps to share the collected data with law enforcement contracting giant Axon, according to leaked BusPatrol documents and a source with knowledge of the plans.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at 404 Media.
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