An Artificial Intelligence (AI) feature dubbed “RoboCop” is to be trialled by Nottingham’s tram bosses as part of a crackdown on anti-social behaviour across the network.
During a meeting on Tuesday (14) meeting Tramlink chief executive Tim Hesketh showed footage of the AI tool being used to detect a group of young people picking up ballast from the tracks and using the small rocks to smash a shelter at Cinderhill tram stop.
He said there are almost 300 CCTV cameras across the network, but only 30 are visible at any one time to staff working in the control room.
The AI tool can flag up specific incidents to control room staff, or the dedicated police officer who has just been placed in the control room as part of a new operation, Operation SafeNET, to more quickly respond and deal with them.
“it is something we can use to detect anti-social behaviour and crime – not before it is happening like in Minority Report, but as it is happening in real-time.”
“If our AI system, or turbo RoboCop if you like, sees someone for instance lying on the floor on the tram platform, or a group of kids smashing up a shelter, that will prompt it to flash it up on screen in front of PC Luke in Operation SafeNET, and someone can make a decision with what to do with it,” Hesketh said.
“We are going to do a live trial over the next few months. Yes it is something we see in sci-fi, something we see at the cinema, but actually it is something we can use to detect anti-social behaviour and crime – not before it is happening like in Minority Report, but as it is happening in real-time.”
The operator also plans to raise penalty fares for those travelling without a ticket.
Currently penalty fares are £70, but permission is being sought by the operator from the Government to increase the amount to £120.
However this would be discounted to £60 if paid within 14 days.
Hesketh said: “Currently the penalty fare is a single price of £70, and if you go beyond the second appeal there is a £25 admin charge.
“Currently there is no real incentive for people to just pay. It is very easy for people to kick the can down the road.
“So in line with the changes to national rail penalty fare schemes, we are asking the Secretary of State if we can increase penalty fares to £120, but discounted to £60 if it is paid within 14 days.
“£70 is not hugely dissimilar to a monthly season ticket cost for an adult, and we’ve always been wary that somebody may say they will risk getting caught once per month because I am never going to be paying more than a monthly season ticket anyway.
“If in a year we decide it hasn’t been any better we will look at changing it again.”
