Birmingham campaigner ‘not surprised’ as AI cameras flag thousands of driving offences
A Birmingham road safety campaigner says more needs to be done after cameras detected thousands of suspected seatbelt and mobile phone offences in a two-week trial.
Last updated 26th Oct 2026
A Birmingham road safety campaigner says he was “dismayed” but “wasn’t surprised” after an AI camera trial flagged almost 19,000 potential seatbelt and mobile phone offences across two West Midlands locations.
Shivaji Shiva, a volunteer with Better Streets for Birmingham, says the findings underline the need for action beyond cameras, including measures to slow traffic and make walking, cycling and bus travel easier.
The two-week trial, funded by the West Midlands Combined Authority, took place in March 2026 outside Ladywood fire station in Birmingham and Fallings Park fire station in Wolverhampton.
Among the images captured were a front-seat passenger holding an unrestrained small child on their lap, and a driver holding a mobile phone with both hands while looking at the screen rather than the road.
Shivaji, a father and charity lawyer who regularly cycles into Birmingham city centre, said he frequently witnesses poor driving.
“If you've got around outside a car, you know how bad driving is across Birmingham and the West Midlands and you know how many driving offences must be being committed” he said.
"I'd love to see people looking at these pictures, thinking hard about whether they should be putting on a seatbelt and leaving mobile phone where it belongs in the glove box or somewhere else.
"Taking a moment to use their phone could cost someone else a horrific serious injury or even death."
‘We need to do more’
Shivaji believes extending the trial would uncover many more potential offences, and hopes enforcement could help reduce dangerous driving habits.
But he said: “I’d hope that that would make our streets safer but I don’t think it’s enough. We need to do more and I think that looks like redesigning our streets to make them safer for everyone.”
He called for traffic to be slowed through residential neighbourhoods and near schools, alongside improvements that would give people more options for getting around without a private car.
He also urged public authorities, including Birmingham City Council, to press ahead with schemes such as the A38 cycleway and School Streets.
Thousands of suspected offences
Initial scans at Ladywood flagged 11,045 potential seatbelt offences and 1,163 potential mobile phone offences.
At Fallings Park, cameras identified 6,030 potential seatbelt offences and 757 potential mobile phone offences.
The technology, developed and supplied by AECOM/Acusensus, was checked by human operators using a sample of 8,024 images.
No enforcement action followed the trial. Its initial purpose was to establish the potential scale of the problem, rather than prosecute motorists.
West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker urged drivers to “belt up and switch off” their phones.
“The number of people risking their own lives and the lives of others, including some very young children, is frankly shocking and far higher than we expected when setting up the trial,” he said.
Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said the results were being evaluated to consider how the technology could be used for future police enforcement.
Fears of more lives lost
For Shivaji, the findings brought back memories of a memorial gathering in Birmingham’s Victoria Square last month, on Friday 4th September 2026.
The event was held by Better Streets for Birmingham to mark the second anniversary of Birmingham's Road Safety Emergency, and to remember people killed in road accidents.
Shivaji recalled 23 empty chairs, each with a red rose, representing lives lost in crashes on the city’s roads over the previous year.
The scale of the suspected offences, he said, “just makes me worry about how many more empty chairs we’d see when we next gather”.