yeah typically exposed wiring is unacceptable; but it happens with residential DIY from time to time.. hell ive seen ethernet runs inside the gutter before on this site lol.
conduit is far too underutilized around here; a youtube video, a 1/2in bender, a scrap piece of EMT and about a half hour of your time is all you need to gather the skills to run nice and secured external conduit runs.. its the connectors that end up costing alot w/lots of conduit, a bender will pay for its self in short order just to avoid extra couplers and prefab bends.. EMT cant be cut by a pair of dykes, can provide a ground for your camera chassis, and takes paint alot better than PVC so its far superior for video surveillance.