The Georgetown City Council approved the first reading of a vehicle and traffic ordinance at its Jan. 28 meeting. Council discussed photographic enforcement of vehicles passing school buses which are loading and unloading students.

Police Chief Wayne Nero spoke about the ordinance, which would allow American Traffic Solutions Inc. to install cameras on Georgetown Independent School District school buses to capture images and video of vehicles that illegally pass a bus with its stop arm extended.

We feel the number of those violations is significant, Nero said. We think we can impact these numbers.

GISD Director of Transportation Walter Prothro told the council at a workshop meeting Nov. 26 the district counted 431 violations Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 25.

The ATS system works by capturing images of vehicles that pass a school bus loading or unloading students with the stop arm out. The images are then sent to ATS for verification.

If the violation is confirmed, the information on the car is sent to the Georgetown Police Department for approval. ATS may then issue a citation by mail to the registered owner of the vehicle.

The ordinance calls for a $300 fine for each violation, but members of the council requested higher fines for subsequent violations. City Manager Paul Brandenburg said increasing fines could be added to the ordinance before the second reading.

If approved, the cameras could be installed on up to 10 buses on the routes with the highest number of violations.

The Council is scheduled to vote on the second reading of the ordinance at the Feb. 11 meeting.