$1.25 million. Is it child safety or money grab?
DOTHAN, Ala. (WTVY) -As Dothan city commissioners breezed through their March 21 agenda, attention centered on hiring a city manager.
After sealing that deal, the focus turned to a mundane but necessary agenda.
A sanitary sewer line contract, first responder software, funding for a new BMX track, and routine travel expenses.
Yea, yea, yea! Seven yeas, as all those proposals passed unanimously.
Then came agenda item #16, during which the brisk-paced meeting slowed following a motion to approve a resolution involving Dothan police in a controversial school bus safety program generating tens of thousands of dollars monthly.
“Any discussion?” asked Mayor Mark Saliba.
Then another voice, “Yeah, I’ve got something.”
The meeting seemed suspended in time for a moment as people wondered where those words came from.
It turned out to be Bradley Bedwell, the District 3 commissioner who had rarely spoken publicly about any issue during his four years on commission.
That was not the case this time.
“You know I’m for every kid who gets on Dothan City school buses getting to school and back safely,” Bedwell said of the Child Safety Program, an automated stop-arm violation system.
Suddenly, those in attendance and others watching online knew there must be a “but.”
“But 80 percent of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck,” Bedwell said, taking issue with the $300 fine for those who fail to heed the stop arms on buses.
Bedwell was the only of six commissioners and the mayor who opposed the motion authorizing Dothan police to review video recorded as part of the Child Safety Program.
The city abruptly withdrew from its part of the initiative about 14 months ago because of legal concerns, which commissioners believe are resolved and cleared the way for them to return.
Each citation carries a $300 fine set by the Alabama Legislature.
The first half of that $300 goes to AngelTrax, a video technology company based in Dothan.
The Dothan Board of Education and Dothan Police each receive 40 percent of the remaining amount, with state agencies splitting the final 20 percent.
The Dothan Child Safety Program is a smash hit if money is the gauge of success.
In the first 21 months after the March 2023 launch, fines exceeded $1.25 million, though during about five of those months students were on summer break.
That comes to a monthly average of $60,000 paid by those who don’t stop for school buses.
Retired Dothan police chief Steve Parrish, who oversees the program, insists the issue isn’t about money but safety.
A public records document reveals revenue topped out in early 2024 when violators paid $245,000 in fines within three months, compared to about $133,000 in the year’s final quarter.
“We were issuing 32-35 citations a day on average early in the program, but that number has dwindled to 10-15 a day,” Parrish said, crediting the program with the decline.
The Dothan Board of Education earmarks money collected for security expenses, including helping offset the cost of campus officers, cameras, fencing, and other things.
“That money has made our campuses safer,” Parrish said.
A National Transportation Safety Board study shows that over half of those surveyed failed to stop for buses either because they didn’t care about safety or were in a hurry.
Another survey revealed that 45 million drivers nationwide fail to stop for school buses picking up and dropping off students each year.
However, 24 percent said they didn’t understand the laws.
Drive down Hartford Highway at about 3:00 p.m. on school days, and you’ll see a Dothan bus stopping along a curb, where two children disembark and head home across a parking lot but never walk along or across the highway.
You might also see traffic on the other side breezing down the five-lane road without stopping, which is only required because there is no median.
If construction crews had placed a piece of concrete in the middle of the road, traffic could legally drive 45 miles per hour without stopping.
Commissioner Bedwell believes that the law confuses drivers.
“I bet about 80 percent of (people) don’t know if a bus is on the left side of (a four-lane highway) and you’re on the right side of the road and there’s not a median you better stop,” he said.
Dothan is one of the growing number of cities relying on stop-arm enforcement provided by AngelTrax, a Dothan-based company, which has competitors.
In a statement, AngelTrax said it provides services to school systems in Houston County, Elba, Santa Rosa County, Florida, Pensacola, and two school systems in Maryland, in addition to pilot programs nationwide.
Like Parrish, the company believes statistics tell an undeniable story.
“In Dothan, within the first year of operation, more than 4,000 citations were issued for the illegal passing of a school bus. In the last 12 months, that number has been reduced by almost 50 percent. And 98 percent of those who receive a citation never get a second one,” AngelTrax said in an email sent for this report.
Former major league baseball player Richie Howard, an Auburn University star in the 1970s, co-founded AngelTrax and serves as the company’s president and chief executive officer.
While Howard’s career with the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates may be unmemorable, he and co-founder Scott Lisenby hit grand slams in the wireless video technology space, a tech industry with endless growth potential.
The company won’t release information on its finances or list investors and is not required to do so because AngelTrax is privately owned, but indications are that it is successful.
In addition to school bus cameras, the company provides services to mass transit systems, tour buses, rail systems, and others.
Its website shows it spends $2.5 million on development and research annually.
From March 2023 until December 2024, the company’s revenue exceeded $600,000 from Dothan’s stop-arm program alone.
The revenue came with costs.
Parrish points out AngelTrax provides, installs, and maintains wireless camera technology on 90 Dothan public school buses.
“What the program has done is change driver behavior, and it has increased awareness of our school buses in this community,” Howard said in a statement. “That’s how you reduce the risk of injury or death for the children in every community.”
Not everyone agrees with his assessment.
Jay Beeber, the National Motorist Association’s executive director of policy, believes there are better ways to keep students safe.
“We prefer that enforcement be focused on the behavior that causes the most accidents or injuries, not just technical violations,” Beeber said in a School Transportation News report published about when Dothan began its safe child program. “Unfortunately, automated school bus ticketing cameras don’t meet these criteria, so it is difficult for us to support them.”
In Alabama, a stop-arm citation is a civil matter, even if police verify the violation. The municipal judge considers appeals from those who believe they were wrongly accused.
However, those who refuse to pay cannot lose their driving privileges or be charged with a criminal offense, though they could face a lawsuit in a small claims court.
It’s not that way elsewhere, including neighboring Georgia, where stop-arm tickets are $1,000.
Betsy Johnson found out the hard way, insisting she had no intention of violating the law.
She claims construction along a 5-lane Atlanta area highway obscured her view along Peachtree Road, and there is a blind spot impeding the view.
She also claims she has never seen a bus stop at the location where she drives often.
Two weeks later, Johnson, a former traffic engineer, received the $1,000 citation.
Like Alabama, those citations are a civil matter, but the Georgia government can place a lien on vehicles that don’t stop for school buses.
In the past couple of years, at least 350 owners have been unable to renew their vehicle registrations because of unpaid fines.
A Georgia lawmaker shares the sentiments of Commissioner Bedwell.
“A thousand dollars is a lot of money; a thousand dollars is enough that people can’t put food on their tables or pay their rent,” Rep. Don Parson (R-Marietta), who favors reducing fines.
Initially, Georgia stop arm citation fines were $250 until an eight-year-old girl died getting on a school bus. Reacting to her death, state lawmakers quadrupled the amount.
A search of available records in Dothan reveals no deaths among children getting on and off school buses.
However, a student was slightly injured when stepping from a bus--- that injury was caused not by a passing vehicle but by the bus in which his arm got caught in the closing door.
WANF’s Andry Pierotti contributed to this report.
Subscribe to our News 4 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning. Get instant notifications on top stories from News 4 by downloading our mobile apps.
Copyright 2025 WTVY. All rights reserved.
