Opinion ID: 360868
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Search of Trash

Text: 14 On two occasions in late March or early April, 1975, Montgomery County police officers, lacking a warrant, nonetheless directed Crowell's private contract trash collector to turn over trash which had been collected from Crowell's residence. On each occasion the trash collector had collected the bag of trash and carried it off of the Crowell property preparatory to putting it on the collection truck. On each occasion the trash collector did as he was told and the police officers received the bag. The trash collector had no permission from Crowell to turn over the trash to the police. At the same time, there was no evidence that he had any instructions other than to remove and dispose of it. 15 The police examined the trash and caused certain substances contained in it to be subjected to chemical analysis. They were shown to be PCP. The presence of PCP in the trash was later used by the police as one of the grounds for obtaining a search warrant to search Crowell's home. It is not shown that evidence of the presence of PCP in the trash was used to convict Crowell and his co-defendants; but even if we assume that they may attack the validity of the warrant because the affidavit supporting its issuance contained an allegation of fact allegedly obtained in violation of the fourth amendment, we see no merit in the contention that the fourth amendment was transgressed. 16 The validity of garbage searches has been the subject of numerous opinions by various courts. While most people probably expect that their garbage will not be inspected but rather will be taken directly to the dump, it is equally true that most people have no clear understanding of what happens to their garbage when it is removed from their premises and have even less expectation of having anything further to do with it once it is removed. The real question is whether there is a reasonable expectation of privacy that one's garbage will not be searched. 17 On this issue, the authorities are split. Stemming from People v. Edwards, 71 Cal.2d 1096, 80 Cal.Rptr. 633, 458 P.2d 712 (1969), a number of state courts and a federal district court 2 have held that a person discarding trash has a reasonable expectation that his trash will not be rummaged through and picked over by police without a search warrant, and therefore that a warrantless search of one's trash is in violation of the fourth amendment. But we think that the better view is that expressed by every United States Court of Appeals that has had reason to address the issue as exemplified in United States v. Shelby, 573 F.2d 971 (7 Cir. 1978); Magda v. Benson, 536 F.2d 111 (6 Cir. 1972); and United States v. Mustone, 469 F.2d 970 (1 Cir. 1972). See also United States v. Minker, 312 F.2d 632 (3 Cir. 1962), Cert. denied, 372 U.S. 953, 83 S.Ct. 952, 9 L.Ed.2d 978 (1963); United States v. Dzialak, 441 F.2d 212 (2 Cir.), Cert. denied, 404 U.S. 883, 92 S.Ct. 218, 30 L.Ed.2d 165 (1971). In accord with those cases, our view is that, absent proof that a person has made some special arrangement for the disposition of his garbage inviolate, he has no reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to it once he has placed it for collection. The act of placing it for collection is an act of abandonment and what happens to it thereafter is not within the protection of the fourth amendment. Certainly there was no fourth amendment protection in the instant case where there was no evidence that Crowell had made any special arrangement for the disposition of his trash and where the garbage had been actually removed from Crowell's premises before it was commandeered by the police.