ld be no reason a person should feel this ruling has violated their rights unless he or she has something to hide. Teltecs Grant advised that those who wish to keep their secrets should use paper shredders and then soak whats been shredded (557). Your trash speaks the truth about your life. It [garbage] is the single most useful tool to obtain information regarding the private lives of individuals, said Armand Grant, president of the Teltec Investigations (555). People may be worried about items in their trash that do not belong to them. Police may find evidence in a homeowners trash that could be from a houseguest or anyone else who may have been in their home. Evidence found in the trash should give probable cause for a warrant; however, it isnt fair for the police officer to suspect a homeowner of a crime just because evidence was found in their trash. Trash may be personal, but it isnt exactly private. The specific item found in the trash could belong to anyone who was in or around that home at any given time. Just because there is a garbage can behind a persons house doesnt mean its their garbage, Rathje said. My response to any kind of law enforcement search is that I would be unsure of the value of the results. If youve put your garbage out in a public area, people can take things out or put things in (558).Police should be given every legal right to inspect curbside trash because every other member of the general public has that same right. White said a trash collector could himself have sorted through the defendants trash and that the police cannot reasonably be expected to avert their eyes from evidence of criminal activity that could have been observed by any member of the public (Taylor 560). A person should have no expectation of privacy in any information that he voluntarily turns over to a third party. If the garbage man had found the drug paraphernalia and turned it over to the police, the outcome of the cas...
