Amended  IN  Senate  June 27, 2018
Amended  IN  Senate  June 13, 2018
Amended  IN  Senate  September 07, 2017

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2017–2018 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill No. 852

Introduced by Assembly Member Caballero

February 16, 2017

An act to amend Section 22454 of the Vehicle Code, relating to vehicles.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 852, as amended, Caballero. Vehicles: children child safety.
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 schoolbus video enforcement system, as defined, for the purpose of enforcing the prohibition described above. 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. The bill would additionally require a school district using an automated schoolbus video enforcement system to, among other things, have a communication plan about the deployment of the system and destroy images captured within 120 days if no violation occurred.
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.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NO   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 Section 22454 of the Vehicle Code is amended to read:

22454.
 (a) The driver of any vehicle, upon meeting or overtaking, from either direction, any schoolbus equipped with signs as required in this code, that is stopped for the purpose of loading or unloading any schoolchildren and displays a flashing red light signal and stop signal arm, as defined in paragraph (4) of subdivision (b) of Section 25257, if equipped with a stop signal arm, visible from front or rear, shall bring the vehicle to a stop immediately before passing the schoolbus and shall not proceed past the schoolbus until the flashing red light signal and stop signal arm, if equipped with a stop signal arm, cease operation.
(b) (1) The driver of a vehicle upon a divided highway or multiple-lane highway need not stop upon meeting or passing a schoolbus that is upon the other roadway.
(2) For the purposes of this subdivision, a multiple-lane highway is any highway that has two or more lanes of travel in each direction.
(c) (1) If a vehicle was observed overtaking a schoolbus in violation of subdivision (a), and the driver of the schoolbus witnessed the violation, the driver may, within 24 hours, report the violation and furnish the vehicle license plate number and description and the time and place of the violation to the local law enforcement agency having jurisdiction of the offense. That law enforcement agency shall issue a letter of warning prepared in accordance with paragraph (2) with respect to the alleged violation to the registered owner of the vehicle. The issuance of a warning letter under this paragraph shall not be entered on the driving record of the person to whom it is issued, but does not preclude the imposition of any other applicable penalty.
(2) The Attorney General shall prepare and furnish to every law enforcement agency in the state a form letter for purposes of paragraph (1), and the law enforcement agency may issue those letters in the exact form prepared by the Attorney General. The Attorney General may charge a fee to any law enforcement agency that requests a copy of the form letter to recover the costs of preparing and providing that copy.
(d) (1) Notwithstanding subdivision (c), in addition to any other monitoring devices lawfully authorized to be installed in or on a schoolbus, a school district is authorized to install and operate an automated schoolbus video enforcement system for the purpose of enforcing violations of subdivision (a).
(2) For purposes of this section, an “automated schoolbus video enforcement system” means a camera system that monitors and records motor vehicles overtaking or passing a schoolbus when the schoolbus is stopped and displaying a flashing red signal system and a stop signal arm, if equipped with a stop signal arm.
(e) (1) A schoolbus equipped with an automated schoolbus video enforcement system shall also be equipped with highly visible signage on the rear of the schoolbus that reads as follows:

“STOP WHEN LIGHTS ARE FLASHING - IT’S THE LAW”
“VIDEO ENFORCED STOP”

(2) The automated schoolbus video enforcement system shall not activate until at least six seconds after the stop arm is deployed, or, if not equipped with a stop arm, at least six seconds after the schoolbus has stopped and its red lights are flashing.
(f) If a school district adopts an automated schoolbus video enforcement system pursuant to this section, a school district may do any of the following:
(1) Craft working arrangements and agreements with law enforcement and governing bodies of cities and counties in the school district’s jurisdiction regarding the responsibilities associated with the administration and cost of deploying that system.
(2) Contract with private vendors for the installation, operation, and maintenance of the system. This paragraph does not authorize a private vendor to decide whether captured images result in a cited violation of subdivision (a).
(3) A school district contracting with a vendor to support an automated schoolbus video enforcement system shall prohibit the vendor from storing, utilizing, or sharing any information, image, or other data captured or generated by the system with any other entity except the school district it supports and law enforcement serving the school district’s jurisdiction.

(3)

(4) A contract between the school district and a vendor to provide administrative or other services for the automated schoolbus video enforcement system, including, but not limited to, processing or storing data collected by the system, shall contain provisions requiring the vendor to provide and install the signage required by this subdivision at the vendor’s expense.

(f)Notwithstanding any other law, any information, image, or other data captured or generated by the automated schoolbus video enforcement system that is transmitted wirelessly is confidential and shall be encrypted and, unless demanded by subpoena, shall be available only to the school district, contractor, law enforcement, or offender for purposes of appeal and enforcing subdivision (a). A school district shall not use an automated schoolbus video enforcement system or any information, image, or other data captured or generated by the automated schoolbus video enforcement system for any purpose other than the purposes authorized by this section.

(g)A school district utilizing an automated schoolbus video enforcement system shall provide the video evidence captured by the system to the local law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the location where the violation occurred.

(g) (1) A school district that adopts an automated schoolbus video enforcement system pursuant to this section shall have a public communication plan to provide information to persons in the school district’s jurisdiction that the system will be deployed, and shall provide the information at least 30 days before its deployment.
(2) During the first 90 days of the deployment of an automated schoolbus video enforcement system, a vehicle owner or driver in violation of subdivision (a) captured by the system shall receive a warning letter and not a citation, unless two or more violations by the same vehicle have occurred during the 90-day period.
(h) (1) A school district utilizing an automated schoolbus video enforcement system shall provide any information, image, or other data captured or generated by that system to the local law enforcement agency with jurisdiction over the location where the violation occurred.
(2) Notwithstanding any other law, any information, image, or other data captured or generated by the automated schoolbus video enforcement system is confidential and shall be encrypted and, unless demanded by subpoena, shall be available only to the school district, contractor, law enforcement, or offender for purposes of appeal and enforcing subdivision (a).
(3) A school district shall not use an automated schoolbus video enforcement system or any information, image, or other data captured or generated by that system for any purpose other than the purposes authorized by this section.
(i) (1) If a school district utilizes an automated schoolbus video enforcement system, the video images shall only capture the vehicle type, color, and license plate displayed, and shall not contain images of any person in the vehicle.
(2) The video images captured or generated by the automated schoolbus video enforcement system shall contain all of the following:
(A) A clear view of vehicles passing the schoolbus on either side.
(B) The date and time the recording was made.
(C) An electronic symbol showing the activation of the amber lights, flashing red lights, stop arm deployment, and brake activation.
(3) Video images used to enforce the schoolbus stop law shall be destroyed within 120 days of recording if no violation occurred.
(j) The vehicle owner and vehicle driver have a right to a copy of the automatic captured video image if a violation is charged. If the vehicle is a rented vehicle, the rental company has a right to view, but not own, store, or share an image of the vehicle charged with a schoolbus stop violation.
(k) A driver of a schoolbus equipped with an automated schoolbus video enforcement system shall not be liable for the operation of that system.

(h)

(l) This section also applies to a roadway upon private property.

SEC. 2.

  The Legislature finds and declares that Section 1 of this act, which amends Section 22454 of the Vehicle Code, imposes a limitation on the public’s right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies within the meaning of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution. Pursuant to that constitutional provision, the Legislature makes the following findings to demonstrate the interest protected by this limitation and the need for protecting that interest:
Protecting the privacy of a person whose image is captured by a schoolbus video enforcement system enhances public safety and the protection of individual rights, thereby furthering the purposes of Section 3 of Article I of the California Constitution.