A review of Victoria's AI-powered cameras for catching distracted drivers and seatbelt violations found no proof the system has boosted road safety outcomes.

Investigators highlighted weak documentation practices, flawed data handling, unclear reasons for camera placements, and improper storage of private images that breached rules.

The Victorian Auditor-General's Office examined the camera initiative rolled out in 2023 to check whether it met its intended aims around driver behavior.

Goals included raising public understanding of risks tied to phone use and missing seatbelts, boosting detection rates, and cutting actions that lead to crashes and harm.

Reviewers examined 308 locations, over 160000 camera hours, and nearly 188500 penalties issued from mid-2023 through September 2025.

The findings stated it remains unclear how much the effort supports safer roads, noting that road deaths in Victoria have risen since the cameras started operating.

Officials at the Department of Justice and Community Safety lack information on whether the cameras cut crashes, injuries, or fatalities because no prior baseline figures were collected for comparison.

Connecting crashes to specific driver actions is difficult, and the department will not finalize a method for tracking this until at least mid-2026.

Expected program benefits have shifted over time, and performance updates have been inconsistent, making long-term evaluation harder.

Recommendations called for stronger ways to track and communicate results on road safety impacts.

The department responded that it had asked the audit team to adjust how research estimates were presented as targets.

Site selection by Victoria Police was described as poorly structured with inconsistent decision records, preventing clear evidence that locations were chosen on solid grounds.

Police were advised to update their selection standards and improve documentation to demonstrate evidence-based choices.

Victoria Police acknowledged that oversight of site identification needs strengthening and committed to adjustments to protect program integrity.

Additional shortcomings appeared in program administration, including privacy concerns around data storage, after the operator Jenoptik altered its archiving tools following a rules breach.

Advice included strict adherence to image storage laws and avoiding reliance on the operator's own accuracy checks, which leave the department exposed to potential data errors.

Victoria plans to invest 28.3 million dollars in upgraded cameras that will handle speeding, red-light, bus-lane, and seatbelt detection plus plate recognition.

Recent figures show road deaths rose 55.6 percent in April 2026 and edged up 0.3 percent over the prior year, reaching 288 compared with 277 when the camera program began.

The initiative forms part of the state's 2021-2030 road safety plan, backed by 1.1 billion dollars, which targets halving deaths from the 266 recorded in 2019 by 2030 and ending them by 2050.