ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — We're getting a closer look at the push to keep students safe getting to and from school with the Monroe County Bus Safety Program. Since the program went live in late 2023, over 4,700 citations have been issued. Now, these buses are outfitted with A.I. cameras, which detect when somebody is driving past when they're not supposed to, like when red lights are flashing and the stop sign is out. "The only question we asked like 'Is this going to make our kids safer in Hilton?' The answer to that was yes, and so we moved forward with it.," said Matthew Schultz, the Director of Transportation for the Hilton Central School District. Hilton was the first in Monroe County to put the program into action on each of its nearly 100 buses. "We knew it was going to help with the safety of our kids and there was zero cost — we really said 'Hey, let's try it and see what happens,'" said Schultz. The program is completely free for the districts. the fine sent to offenders, a steep $250, is split between Bus Patrol — the company that operates the cameras — and the county. News 8 was told by county officials that the money goes back to traffic safety. "Traffic safety is a really big issue that we have right now that we're really tackling head-on, so the funds that come in will go leaps and bounds in protecting the community whether they're driving, walking, biking," said Kristina Daugherty, the Principal Central Police Administrator for Monroe County. Daugherty said there's a review process: A.I. detects when someone drives by when lights are flashing, that footage goes to a cloud portal, Bus Patrol looks at the footage, and if they believe it's a ticket-able offense they send it to the county, where local technicians check it, and determine if it's an actual offense. around 54 percent of the videos captured are ticket-able. "There are so many close calls that we've seen," Daugherty said. "You can't put a few seconds on the life of a child." Before the Webster Central School District was completely on board, they had a one-month test run where drivers were asked to radio in every time someone drove by when they weren't supposed to. There were over 200 instances. "Extrapolated that out over a 10-month school year, that's over 2,000 times, so we were like we do have a problem," said Brian Freeman, assistant superintendent for business. "It was very eye-opening for all of us and that was kind of what pushed us over the edge to join the program." The City of Rochester is currently exploring its own contract. For now, the county program is expanding to include Spencerport and Pittsford. The county tells us that within the first 10 days of this school year, over 200 citations were issued through the program — that includes all five participating districts.