BS BULLETIN:
- Hackers physically obtained and reverse-engineered a Flock Safety license-plate camera, exposing new details about what happens inside the device.
- Researchers examining the extracted data found roughly 1.6 million images of more than 50,000 vehicles recorded over about 21 days.
- The camera’s software could also detect people — a capability that goes beyond the license plates at the center of the public debate.
Those increasingly familiar Flock Safety cameras watching America’s roads apparently see quite a bit more than a license plate going by.
A hacker collective called stegan0gram physically removed a Flock camera and reverse-engineered its hardware and software, then provided the material to WIRED and 404 Media for analysis.
What they found offered an unusually detailed look under the hood of a surveillance network already being used by law enforcement agencies across the country. The camera’s logs contained about 21 days of activity spread across several periods. During those periods, it photographed roughly 50,200 vehicles and generated approximately 1.6 million images.
Flock Safety promised on-device encryption. Hacker collective stegan zero gram removed a camera, recovered its key, and found it detected people, bicycles, and bumper stickers. One camera produced over a million images in weeks. pic.twitter.com/bWwxcr4WlR
— Lambert Woolingham (@TheDailyShear) September 16, 2026
A typical vehicle passing the camera triggered about 28 photographs, according to WIRED, although some generated more than 100.
The camera takes images at different exposures, selects useful frames, and sends the resulting information over a cellular connection to Flock. The analysis indicates that reading license plates and identifying vehicle characteristics such as make, model, and color occurs on Flock’s servers rather than inside the roadside camera itself.
But investigators found another capability buried in the software. It detects people.
WIRED extracted the camera’s detection models and tested them against images and video. The software successfully identified people, including in footage recovered from the camera. In the recovered roadway clips, people appeared relatively rarely because of the camera’s positioning. The people it did identify were riding motorcycles.
Flock is not a license plate recorder, despite what defenders claim.
It is a midrange Android taking millions of pictures & sending a lot of them to Flock.
Makes you wonder: what else is Flock doing with those photos? pic.twitter.com/cCxd5pLVlt
— John Scott-Railton (@jsrailton) September 16, 2026
The findings arrive as Flock’s technology faces growing scrutiny over privacy and the enormous network of searchable information available to law enforcement.
Earlier this month, WIRED separately examined Flock’s AI-powered search tools and reported that police can establish an automated watch across multiple cameras for people matching a written description.
Flock, however, draws an important distinction between the hackers’ work and a remote intrusion into its network.
“The unauthorized removal and tampering of a Flock camera is illegal,” a company spokesperson told The Hill.
Flock also says its cloud platform has never been hacked and that customer data has not been compromised through a breach. The company says its license-plate readers do not use facial recognition or identify the occupants of vehicles.
That doesn’t make what researchers found inside the physical camera any less fascinating. The little box watching traffic isn’t simply snapping one picture of your license plate as you drive past.
It’s taking pictures. Lots of them.
MY QUICK TAKE
Remember when a traffic camera was just supposed to catch you blowing through a red light? Those were adorable times. Now one passing car can apparently get its own photo shoot.
DBS WIRE SOURCES:
- The Hill — Hackers reverse-engineer Flock cameras
- WIRED — Hackers got inside a Flock camera. Its data shows how the system really works
- 404 Media — Hackers stole Flock’s camera software, revealing how the company tracks cars and people
- WIRED — This is Flock’s AI search tool for cops
- Flock Safety — Flock’s security record
