South Australia rolls out AI-powered phone detection cameras
South Australia last week went live with a network of surveillance cameras that detect when drivers use mobile phones.
‘We hope this will contribute to improving driver behaviour’
The Australian province has been testing the AI-powered cameras for two months. Last Wednesday, five became operational in key areas: Southern Expressway in Darlington, Port Wakefield Road in Gepps Cross, Port Road in Hindmarsh. South Road in Torrensville, and North South Motorway in Regency Park.
South Australia Police are giving motorists a three-month grace period during which they will receive warning letters if caught on camera with phones in their hands. Starting September 19th, drivers reported by the cameras will receive a A$540 fine, a A$99 Victims of Crime tax, and three demerits on their driver’s licenses.
“We have seen from other jurisdictions a significant change in behaviour of people not using their mobile phones after the introduction of mobile phone detection cameras, so by introducing these cameras to high-risk areas, we hope this will contribute to improving driver behaviour,” said Superintendent Darren Fielke in a press release.
The cameras, which can also detect whether a driver is wearing a seatbelt, will alert law enforcement when they identify a driver holding a phone, at which point the photo will be reviewed by a police officer.
Privacy concerns
Privacy watchdogs have raised concerns over the A$15.9 million project, given that the cameras constantly peer into private cars to detect whether a phone is being used by the driver.
But South Australia is only the latest Australian state to install the devices. Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales are also using mobile phone detection cameras.
On a national level, Australia’s overreaching surveillance infrastructure has been coming under fire for privacy breaches.
Last year it was revealed that Australia’s government illegally performed hundreds of millions of identity verification checks between 2019 and 2023.
The revelation came the week after the Australian Federal Police (AFP) were exposed for using controversial facial recognition software, supposedly without knowledge or approval from higher authorities.
In 2021, AFP was found to have breached privacy rules with its use of Clearview AI, a database which has scraped over 30 billion photos of private citizens from the web without permission.
