The landlords here are among those same Californistan neo-liberals who denounce "corporate greed" and "putting profits before people". Yet they're content to be cut-throat capitalists when it's their turn. Do As I Say, Not As I Do. Meanwhile those same landlords continue voting for No Growth (*cough* "smart growth") legislators and laws, to artificially restrict housing supply. Wouldn't want the poor poor homeowners to suffer any free market competition when renting out their overpriced hovels and laughing all the way to the bank. And yet somehow "greed" is still seen as a whole and exclusively Republican sin out here. Blame the techies paying the rent. Blame the companies paying the salaries. Never talk about the mostly-liberal-voting landlords setting the sky-high cost of rent even while they're paying off a mortgage that's a mere 50% of the home's current market value, or even already own their home outright! It's always the other guys at fault here in the SF Bay. It's only "profiteering" or "excessive" or "windfall profits" when Republicans or corporations or Wall St does it. Liberals get a free pass.

"If the police want security tapes from a local business, for example, they have always just asked for them. The business isn't obligated to hand them over in that situation, but often does anyway, to be helpful."

I have personally known 3 business owners in the course of my life who cooperated in similar manner with police "requests". They all admitted to me that they did so out of fear of the well-established (and once plainly-communicated) threat of "slower response times in case of emergency".

This is a game cops play with anyone who has something the cops want - hand it over, or else they'll punish you by refusing to do their job (while still eagerly accepting the pay for that job), while still enforcing each and every law against you that makes it difficult or dangerous to protect you and yours.