Search Warrant

In some cases, one of the things that people do is to dispose of incriminatory objects, documents or things related to drug use, they often believe that evidence will not be found or do not take into account if there is a law enforcer who may take advantage of the situation. People are not aware that the law can use garbage obtain a search warrant for your home or vehicle without it being a search under the 4th amendment, especially in drug related crimes, most of the people think that they need a search warrant in order to register any part of their property, but the law considers garbage as an abandoned property in some instances and doesn’t believe that you should expect privacy in those cases, whether or not the garbage is protected from police searches without a warrant, relies on the decision of the court regardless of where was the garbage located in the property, when your garbage cans are actually put in the curb of your property, the court considers it to be abandoned property since any person can have access to it, but it your garbage is within the curtilage of your house the police will need a warrant in order to search it.
The case started in February of 1984, an informant gave the address of an illegal shipment to a federal agent, the address turned
out to be the home of Billy Greenwood. In addition, a neighbor had complained that several cars arrived at Greenwood's home late at night and stayed only a few minutes. With this information, an investigator from Laguna Beach Police named Jenny Stracner believed Greenwood was involved in drug dealing, but before making a request for a warrant she confirmed the information given by the witnesses, she observed vehicles making brief stops at the house at night and she followed a truck from Greenwood's house to a suspected drug dealing location.
In April, Stracner asked the trash collector to bring her Greenwood's garbage bags, which Greenwood had left for pick-up at the curb outside of his curtilage.
The trash collector did so. Stracner searched through the garbage and found items related to drug use, such as razor blades, straws with cocaine residue, and phone bills with calls to people that had drug records. With all of this evidence, Stracner obtained a search warrant. The police searched the house, found quantities of cocaine, and arrested Greenwood and Dyanne Van Houten, another occupant of the house, on felony narcotics charges. Unfortunately, Greenwood posted bail and after a short time the complaints about late-night visits started
again.
On May of the same year, Investigator Robert Rahaeuser got Greenwood's trash bags from the garbage collector like Stracner before him. Once again, the garbage search revealed evidence of illegal drug use. Rahaeuser obtained a search warrant, and the police found more drugs and evidence of drug dealing. Greenwood was arrested again.
The Superior Court of Orange County dismissed the charges against Greenwood because People v. Krivda (1971) held that trash searches without a warrant violated the Fourth Amendment and the California Constitution. The court felt that without the search of the trash, the police would not have had probable cause to search the home, so Greenwood was released of the charges.
Upon review, the court held that Greenwood did not have an expectation of privacy. Greenwood left the garbage at the side of the road is “accessible to animals, children, scavengers, snoops, and other members of the public.” The court also pointed out the fact that the police cannot be expected to ignore criminal activity that can be observed by any member of the public. California v. Greenwood settled the question of whether a person's trash, placed on the curb for collection, could be searched without a warrant. The expectation of privacy does not guarantee protection of the Fourth Amendment unless society considers that expectation to be reasonable. It is not reasonable to believe that trash placed at the curb will remain private since any pedestrian can have access to it.