Birmingham City Council has begun a pilot in the use of CCTV cameras with AI in its effort to reduce fly tipping.
The first three cameras have been installed in the Aston, Erdington and North Edgbaston areas with a £45,000 grant from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs as part of its programme to support anti-fly tipping initiatives.
The cameras can detect images of suspected dumped rubbish and automatically alert council officers to save them from manually trawling through hours of recorded footage.
They will be supplemented by posters and other forms of communications, and engagement with communities in the wards involved.
An evaluation of the pilot will be carried out, with the units then added to the wider pool of CCTV across the city.
Efficiency and justice
Cllr Majid Mahmood, Birmingham’s cabinet member for environment, said: “This CCTV should help us monitor hotspot areas in a more efficient way and bring to justice those who are responsible.
“Unfortunately, we have to regularly issue fixed penalty notices to offenders across the city and where appropriate we will take cases through the courts – with hefty fines or prison the uncomfortable prospects for those who are guilty.”
