School zone cameras
For three fiscal years Kaufman County's budget carried a revenue line called "school camera zone" and an expense line called "school camera zone ATS fees". The county paid American Traffic Solutions $175,000 in August 2016. Both lines go to nothing after fiscal year 2017.
At a glance
- What the county took in
- $150,395.00 in fiscal year 2015 and $225,971.00 in fiscal year 2016, on general fund revenue line 010-0917-370-2, "school camera zone". Budgeted at $30,000 for fiscal year 2017 and at nothing for fiscal year 2018 [1]
- What the county paid the vendor
- $78,833.00 in fiscal year 2015 and $271,911.40 in fiscal year 2016, on expenditure line 010-9170-409, "school camera zone ATS fees". Budgeted at $30,000 for fiscal year 2017 and at nothing for fiscal year 2018 [2]
- The largest single payment
- $175,000.00, check number 260538, dated 22 August 2016, to AMERICAN TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS, INC. The only payment to that vendor in the county's published check registers [3]
- Refunds paid
- $1,848.00 in fiscal year 2015 and $676.10 in fiscal year 2016, on line 010-9170-409-1 [2]
- Where the cameras were, and how many
- No county document read for this page names a location or gives a count [1] [2]
- When the program started and when it ended
- Not recorded in any readable county document. The budget lines first appear as fiscal year 2015 actuals and last appear as a fiscal year 2017 adopted figure [1] [2]
- The decision to end it
- Not readable. The Commissioners Court's record for those years is not on the county's own site [4]
How it happened
- Deployment
A $175,000 check to American Traffic Solutions
Check number 260538, $175,000.00, to AMERICAN TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS, INC, in the county's accounts payable register for August 2016. It is the only payment to the vendor in the registers the county publishes, and it is larger than any single surveillance payment in the county's record. [3]
- Decision
Both lines budgeted at nothing
The fiscal year 2018 adopted budget carries the school camera zone revenue line and the ATS fees line with a dash in the 2018 column. Neither line appears in any later budget except as a prior-year actual figure. The budget does not say why. [1] [2]
Kaufman County once ran automated traffic enforcement in school zones. The county’s own budget is where it is recorded, and it is recorded as two numbers a year.
On the revenue side, general fund line 010-0917-370-2 is named “school camera zone”. It brought in $150,395.00 in fiscal year 2015 and $225,971.00 in fiscal year 2016. On the expenditure side, line 010-9170-409 is named “school camera zone ATS fees”, and it paid out $78,833.00 and then $271,911.40 in the same two years. A third line, 010-9170-409-1, records refunds of $1,848.00 and $676.10.
The abbreviation resolves in the county’s check register. On 22 August 2016 Kaufman County wrote check number 260538 for $175,000.00 to AMERICAN TRAFFIC SOLUTIONS, INC. It is the only payment to that vendor in the registers the county publishes, and it is the largest single payment to any surveillance vendor anywhere in the county’s spending record.
In fiscal year 2016 the fee line is larger than the revenue line. The two sit in different sections of the same fund and the budget does not reconcile them, so this page reports both figures and draws no conclusion about what the program cost the county on balance.
Then it stops
The fiscal year 2018 adopted budget carries both lines with a dash in the 2018 column. Neither name appears in any later budget except as a prior-year actual, and the county’s budgets run through fiscal year 2024.
What ended it is not in anything we could read. Texas law on automated traffic enforcement changed during these years, and the county’s own record of the decision would be in the Commissioners Court’s minutes for 2017, which are on a separate system that is not on the county’s website. Naming a cause without that document would be a guess, and this page does not offer one.
What the budget never says
Not where the cameras were. Not how many there were. Not which school zones they covered, or when the first one went up. Not whether the images or the plate numbers they captured were kept, or for how long, or whether anything was deleted when the program ended.
A camera program that took in $376,366 over two recorded years left behind two line items and a check number.
What we do not know
- Where the cameras stood, how many there were, and which school zones they covered.
- When the program began and when the last camera came down.
- What decision ended it, and at which meeting.
- Whether any images or plate data from the program were retained, and for how long.
What you can do
Show up
Systems like this one are approved by boards, councils and committees that meet in public. We have confirmed where each of them meets in Kaufman County and how public comment works there.
How to show up in Kaufman County →Protect yourself
Practical steps to shrink your personal data trail. Our guides publish at launch; until then, EFF's Surveillance Self-Defense is the best starting point.
Surveillance Self-Defense →Sources
- 1. Kaufman County, fiscal year 2018 adopted budget, page 11, general fund revenues, line 010-0917-370-2 · Primary document · · accessed
- 2. Kaufman County, fiscal year 2018 adopted budget, page 19, general government expenditures, lines 010-9170-409 and 010-9170-409-1 · Primary document · · accessed
- 3. Kaufman County, accounts payable check register, checks from 08/01/2016 to 08/31/2016 · Primary document · · accessed
- 4. Kaufman County Commissioners Court agendas and minutes · Primary document · · accessed
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