Comment by alangibson

30 years ago (which was the early 1990s, eek!), analog CCTV was all the rage. Costs for cameras and VCR units plummeted, tapes became cheap commodities, and multiplexing video became trivial. With time-lapse and multiplexing, you only needed one VCR for four cameras, which could record for 24-48h on a single tape. It became cheap enough for businesses, hotels, apartment complexes, and the like to install them everywhere. Private CCTV became a staple of police procedural shows like Law and Order (1st season was 1990), which made people expect to be able to "check the tapes" after an alleged crime.

Edit: This same issue was also a problem in the 1990s with private CCTV! If a police officer or detective tells a business owner that a crime has been committed and there might be evidence on the tape, the owner doesn't have to show the police the tape without a warrant. But they usually did, because it looks suspicious if they don't.

Here's a quote from Max Headroom (of Pepsi commercial fame, for people old enough to remember Pepsi), from 1987:

Edison Carter: Security Systems has its tendrils into every element of our society - the government, our homes, the police, the courts - I'm not gonna spike this story just because it deals with dollar amounts beyond your comprehension! It's too important!

Murray: ...cerebral...

Theora Jones: Murray, we're trying to play this takeover as a threat to our average viewer. Nobody knows who's doing it. I mean, we all deal with SS every day - what if some really dangerous people got control of it?

Murray: Who do you think controls it now?

Actually yes. 30 years ago I was 8 and the first home CCTV setups were just coming out. People loved that shit. But then Im a brit and we're all nosey neighbours...