Ella Reed
Block 1B In February in 1984, Jenny Strancer, an officer at Laguna Beach Police Department, watched multiple vehicles coming and going quickly from Billy Greenwood’s house. She followed one of the vehicles to a place the police department had already suspected of drug dealing. In April of the same year she requested that the trash collector gave her Greenwood’s trash. After receiving the the trash she found razor blades as well as traces of cocaine. Jenny Strancer asked for and received as search warrant and was able to arrest Greenwood. Greenwood was able to post bail and was quickly freed. On the 4th of May in 1984 a different investigator took up the Greenwood case. Robert Rahaeuser once against took Greenwood’s trash bags and later obtained a search warrant. After finding more proof of his drug dealing the police once again arrested Greenwood. The Superior Court of Orange County did not find Greenwood guilty because in People v. Krivda, a case in 1971, it was decided that garbage searches required a warrant or they were in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The California Court of Appeals was in agreement with the Superior Court. On the 11th of January in 1988 the Supreme Court saw the case. Their…show more content… It was argued that since members of society can easily access thrown out garbage, police should be able to do the same. Because the trash was now in a more public place instead of the privacy in his home, he didn’t have the to keep it private under the Fourth Amendment. It was also argued that the Court had declined to apply the exclusionary rule when officers act in good faith and when releasing the guilty defender could harm other members of the community. As long as police have not violated a federal law, the good things that will come from ignoring the exclusionary rule will outweigh the bad
