We, the residents and motorists of Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead, unequivocally support student safety. However, the current School Bus Safety Program has been exposed as a profit-driven scheme that prioritizes revenue over the actual protection of children. This program is characterized by legal precariousness, operational malfeasance, and a profound lack of fairness that treats residents as sources of revenue rather than constituents to be served. 

     Why This Program Must End:

 - The "Ghost Ticket" Scandal: The Town of Hempstead’s administration has demonstrated gross incompetence by issuing approximately 80,000 unauthorized tickets in school districts that never legally agreed to participate, including Baldwin, Hempstead, Lawrence, and Valley Stream 13. This breakdown represents a potential liability of $20 million, yet the Town has engaged in maneuvering to retroactively validate these penalties rather than issuing immediate refunds.

 - The "Divided Highway" Trap: New York is an outlier in traffic safety regulation. Unlike 49 other states, our current law mandates that drivers stop even on the opposite side of divided highways separated by physical barriers, creating dangerous conditions on major roads like Sunrise Highway. This enforcement contradicts national safety norms and creates rear-end collision risks without providing a tangible safety benefit for students.

 - Profiteering from Law Enforcement: The program relies on a corrupting financial model where a private vendor, BusPatrol, keeps 45% of the revenue from every ticket. This commission-based structure creates a "moral hazard," incentivizing the vendor to maximize the volume of citations rather than focusing on reducing unsafe behaviors.

 - Erosion of Due Process: Recent legislative changes have shifted the burden of proof, creating a "rebuttable presumption" where the video evidence is presumed correct and the driver is effectively presumed guilty. Furthermore, the suspension of adjudicatory hearings in Nassau County has left drivers in "limbo," unable to exercise their right to a trial and often forced to pay fines just to resolve the matter.

     Our Demands:

Immediate Moratorium: Suspend all school bus camera enforcement in the Town of Hempstead and Nassau County immediately until a full, independent forensic audit is conducted.  

Refund the "Ghost Tickets": Automatically refund all drivers ticketed in the non-participating districts without forcing residents to navigate complex paperwork for the Town's administrative errors.  

Pass Senate Bill S716: We call on the NYS Legislature to immediately pass Bill S716, which would exempt opposing traffic on divided highways from stopping, aligning New York law with safety engineering and national standards.  

End Profit-Based Enforcement: Terminate the contract with BusPatrol. Law enforcement should never be commodified; any future safety program must be flat-fee based and administered solely by public safety officials. 

     Sign this petition to demand that Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead restore integrity to our local government and stop exploiting drivers under the guise of safety.