On a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience featuring UFC heavyweight Sean Sharaf, the conversation took an unexpected turn from combat talk to surveillance technology.
Sharaf brought up Flock cameras directly, asking Rogan how he felt about the surveillance systems that have been rapidly deployed across American cities.
Rogan’s response was measured but clear: he doesn’t like the idea of cameras everywhere watching everything people do constantly. While acknowledging he isn’t fully educated on every aspect of the technology, he questioned whether mass surveillance is truly our only solution to crime.
He stated, “The Flock cameras, first of all, there have been a lot of people that had access to the Flock cameras that are not supposed to have access to the flock cameras. Cops have used them to stalk people and track their exes. There’s been a ton of lawsuits. People have taken down flock cameras. But I don’t like the cameras everywhere watching everything you do constantly.”
The podcast host pointed to alternative approaches that address root causes rather than symptoms. Better trained and better paid police officers, improved education, and increased access to healthcare in underserved neighborhoods could all reduce criminal activity without creating an omnipresent digital eye.
Rogan said, “Is it that really our only solution? It’s not better trained, better paid, more ethical police officers, better education, better access to health care and education in poor neighborhoods that creates less illegal activities.”
He continued, “Like there’s other ways of dealing with this instead of a eye in the sky that watches everything you do all day long that has been shown, at least in certain circumstances, to be abused by people.”
Rogan referenced the famous Franklin quote about liberty and security, noting that when you give corporations enormous power to monitor everywhere you go and everything you do, people begin to self-censor and watch themselves constantly.
He said, “The real problem is like the Benjamin Franklin quote for people that are willing to give up liberty for security deserve neither. When you give enormous corporations the power to monitor everywhere you go, everything you do, you’re going to self censor.”
Rogan emphasized that if society is going to deploy such powerful surveillance technology, its use should be incredibly restricted and limited to genuine threats. The current reality where local law enforcement can access these systems for personal purposes, represents a dangerous disconnect between the stated purpose of public safety and actual implementation.
