 CCTV systems which use AI to catch fly-tippers red-handed are now being piloted in Britain's two biggest cities. Three of the cameras were activated this week in three areas of Birmingham which suffer the worst from illegal rubbish dumping. Another three have been in use in Westminster, central London, since February. Many councils across the UK have installed regular CCTV systems over fly-tipping hotspots in a bid to crack down on culprits. But they require council workers to manually trawl through hours of footage after an incident is reported. Councillors say the new systems use artificial intelligence to analyse footage and detect images which look like dumped rubbish. It then automatically alerts council officers, who can rapidly access the images and confirm whether an incident has taken place. The project has been funded using a £45,000 government grant (Picture: Getty) In Westminster, the system will also record the number plates of suspect vehicles and automatically request the owner's details from the DVLA. Councillor Majid Mahmood, who is leading the project for Birmingham City Council using £45,000 from a government grant, said: 'There is absolutely no excuse to dump waste on our streets. 'It's disgusting and means we have to spend money that could be better used in other ways to meet the priorities of citizens. '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.' Fly-tippers face fixed-penalty notices or, in some cases, prosecution (Picture: Getty) After the new systems are piloted, they will be connected to a larger pool of existing CCTV cameras. CCTV analysis software has){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
CCTV systems which use AI to catch fly-tippers red-handed are now being piloted in Britain’s two biggest cities.
Three of the cameras were activated this week in three areas of Birmingham which suffer the worst from illegal rubbish dumping.
Another three have been in use in Westminster, central London, since February.
Many councils across the UK have installed regular CCTV systems over fly-tipping hotspots in a bid to crack down on culprits.