The City of Adelaide's AI-assisted parking enforcement system, Park Safe, is facing scrutiny after figures revealed that about one in four challenged parking fines issued since June 2024 were withdrawn. While the system flags potential offenses, the council requires two staff members to review evidence before issuing a ticket.
DataSA figures indicate a significant number of motorists successfully challenged fines. A spokesperson for the City of Adelaide stated that some withdrawals were due to mitigating circumstances, such as drivers briefly stopping to read signs or responding to medical emergencies, rather than solely errors. The spokesperson defended the Park Safe system as an "effective tool" for parking management, which aims to enhance street safety and accessibility.
"Human oversight remains a fundamental component of the process," the spokesman said, adding that one staff member reviews an expiation, followed by a second to confirm and issue it. The council also highlighted more recent data from the first three months of the 2026-27 financial year, showing less than one percent of expiation notices issued by officers after Park Safe recordings were withdrawn following review. Approximately 11,068 notices were issued during that period.
Dr. Raffaele Ciriello, a senior lecturer in business information systems at the University of Sydney, suggested that the high withdrawal rate might indicate shortcomings in human oversight rather than the AI technology itself. "When AI systems flag potential offenses at scale, public servants can become overwhelmed with automated outputs, and human review risks becoming little more than a rubber stamp," Dr. Ciriello commented to Daily Mail. He encouraged drivers to challenge fines they believe were wrongly issued to pressure councils into improving their oversight processes.
This situation echoes similar concerns raised elsewhere in Australia. In Western Australia, approximately 5,700 seatbelt fines were withdrawn after motorist reviews, following the introduction of AI-assisted cameras in October 2025. Western Australian Police Commissioner Col Blanch noted that penalties were dropped in cases where a conviction was unlikely, and a review of penalties from AI-assisted cameras is ongoing.