Peabody subcommittee approves stop‑arm camera program under MGL c.90 §§14, 14C

The Peabody City Council subcommittee on Legal Affairs voted 5-0 to accept applicable sections of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 90 (sections 14 and 14C) and establish a school bus violation detection monitoring system that uses cameras on bus stop arms to detect and document illegal passing.

The resolution authorizes the city to receive and use video evidence collected by stop‑arm cameras so police can issue tickets to vehicles that illegally pass stopped school buses. Proponents said the program is intended to curb dangerous driving near bus stops and to fund safety measures through citation revenue.

Mayor Bettencourt, who presented the resolution to the subcommittee, described a local pilot and state legislative history that led to the vote. "We had over 3,500 incidents of reckless driving, of people just not adhering to the stop arm, driving around school buses," he said, citing a 10‑bus pilot the city ran with vendor Bus Patrol and bus operator Healy Bus to gather evidence. The mayor said the state legislature approved the new law in early January 2025 and that municipalities now must vote locally to implement enforcement.

Maria Sherry, the resident advocate who led the local effort and helped organize the pilot, described witnessing repeated illegal passes at her child's stop and said community outreach and video evidence were pivotal to gaining legislative support. "It just kept happening over and over and over again," Sherry said, describing the push to collect footage and raise awareness.

Captain Scott Richards of the Peabody Police Department said the department has issued citations in the past but cannot station officers at every bus stop. "This is why it's very important that this got passed for us. Gives us another tool to do the job," he said, and told the committee he expects the department's implementing policy to be strict: "It's gonna be a 0 tolerance policy as far as I'm concerned."

Mayor Bettencourt and other speakers said the city would contract with a third‑party vendor to install and operate the monitoring system; vendor fees would be covered by fines rather than up‑front city payments. The mayor said anticipated uses of revenue include administrative costs and school safety measures such as crossing guards, signage and crosswalk improvements, but details of any contract and revenue share were not finalized at the meeting.

Councilor Turco moved the resolution; no second was recorded on the roll call. The motion passed on a 5‑0 roll call vote. Subcommittee members said the next steps will include vendor selection and drafting an implementation policy for enforcement and citation handling.

The vote followed several minutes of discussion and statements of support from councilors and community members who helped compile the pilot data. The subcommittee did not adopt a specific vendor or contract at the meeting; those procurement decisions were left to staff and future votes.