The following is a computer-generated transcription, some grammar and spelling errors may be inherent

Hello, everyone, it's Anthony Bandiero here with blue to gold law enforcement training, bringing to the roadside chat. All right. So our question today comes from an officer in the great state of Tennessee. I Love Tennessee. All right. So here's the question. Can a tenant in a government housing project waive their Fourth Amendment protections of the home by lease agreement? Okay. Let me give some context. So the officer sharing here that in our local housing authority, it is my understanding that the manager can enter and search a tenants apartment anytime, under the lease agreement. On occasion, they have asked that we stand by while they do so. And have even asked for Kane for canine to sniff the apartment. Does this violate the Fourth Amendment? Or does the lease agreement act as it as act as consent? Alright, so the, the quick answer is, can the government housing project waive a person's fourth amendment rights? 
And the answer is no. Because no government agency can basically tell a person you have no more fourth amendment rights, right? If you're going to take if you're going to subscribe to this or, you know, accept these government benefits, you have no fourth amendment rights, that's not the way to look at it instead. The question is, okay, are they asking for something that is reasonable? Right, if it's reasonable, it likely complies with the fourth time, it's not like the government, government housing projects have no have no authority to inspect their property to make sure that people are not abusing the property. And, you know, if they get a tip that something's manufacturing drugs or so forth, that they can't do anything about it. But the point is, still, is that is that a waiver of the Fourth Amendment? No. Is it potentially reasonable under the Fourth Amendment? Maybe? So let's go through it. So number one, apparently, right, or allegedly, the lease agreement says that we can come into your apartment anytime and inspect. I doubt that's the case. Right? If that if it truly said that we can come into your apartment anytime and you know, without notice, or without any kind of just cause I doubt a court would uphold that. Because that is not reasonable. Right? You are the government and you're in you're offering these benefits. And you're saying as a stipulation to accepting the benefit, I have to allow the government's right, you know, aka the Housing Authority, the law, the government to come into my home and just rummage through my stuff or just inspect my property? No. So I doubt that that's the case. More likely, the contract or the lease agreement says something about some costs, right? There's some item that may be causing damage, like a water leak, or we have reason to believe that there's additional people living in the home that are not allowed to be there. Maybe if it's emergency, no notice, if it's a non emergency, maybe some notice, but all those things are going to be hashed out by legal counsel representing the government housing projects. So as a cop, you know, whatever that says, is probably legit, because it's been researched. So I'm assuming, without even seeing it, that the lease agreement has some clause in there that either it's for emergencies or for cars. Let's go on to the next question. Okay.
Can the cop sniff the door of the apartment? Well, generally speaking, the answer is yes. In most courts. Some states don't like it, like Connecticut and Texas, and so forth. Some states are fully on board with allowing because there's no privacy interest. The Supreme Court has only addressed sniffing a door with a drunk canine at a home where the outside was curtilage. They have that case does that case, by the way, is Florida versus Jordans. That Jardins case does not apply to apartments where the door is situated in a common hallway, because that common hallway is not curtilage. So curtilage requires a right of exclusion, right? Usually like you can exclude other people. Well, if it's a hallway, there's no right of exclusion. Now, certainly, in some apartment layouts, there may be some property or piece of, you know, hallway that is really just for that occupant. Nobody else should be there, except the occupant. And if that's the case, buyer beware, you should not be doing any kind of, you know, at, you know, Criminal Investigation activity except a knock and talk, or some kind of emergency response and so forth on that piece of property. If it's really just for that particular apartment, nobody else should be there. It's kind of like their little piece of property. It's kind of rare, but that those situations do occur, right. But generally speaking, most courts have found that a canine sniff of an apartment door in a common hallway is not a search under the Fourth Amendment. And they certainly have found that to be the case of a hotel and motel apartments or rooms. And again, it gets a little tricky with apartments. But generally speaking, to answer your question, not a search under most courts, I also believe that the US Supreme Court would have would, if they've had the opportunity to address this issue head on, I think they would find the same thing. Because all of the curlers laws, and so forth in the prior cases are in the line of no search, right? There's no privacy expectation, the hallway, so therefore the dog can be there now to that the apartment is closed, I'm sorry, the apartment corridors are locked, you know, and there's only there's only permitted access with a with a key card or something like that, then then the cops would have to be in there lawfully first before deploying the dog. That's what I would suggest. Next. Um, can the manager right of the government housing project asked police to stand by while they do these searches? Well, certainly, police are allowed to be where they're allowed to be. So if the manager wants them to stand out in the hallway and just stand by for any kind of safety issue, there's no Fourth Amendment issue that I can see there. Right. The cops are not telling the manager Hey, Go search that house. Hey, we have a tip that there's a drug lab in there, can you go in there and do your independent power? They're not doing that they're just standing by for safety reasons, that does not even implicate the Fourth Amendment in my book. Um, all right. So I'm gonna try to make sure I got all these questions, right. The one thing that hasn't been specifically stated here, but one thing I'll share with you is that can't like let's let's assume that the manager is inside the apartment for some lawful reason, right? It's part of the contract, it's the investigate some kind of damage to the property. A tip that there's, you know, an unapproved people living at the apartments, drug lab, whatever, and the person, the manager can get in there under lease agreement, can he or she invite police to go along with them? And the answer is probably not. Right. Now, if there's a safety issue, that's totally different, right? We can, you know, we can restore order, maintain order. But we don't want police inside apartments.
Generally speaking, because even though the contract would allow the manager to go in there, same as a hotel room, like housekeeping managers, and so forth, even though they can go in there, it doesn't mean police are also allowed to tag along unless there's a legitimate safety issue, or some kind of ongoing criminal issue going on, right, where there's some kind of safety, exigency, destruction of evidence and so forth. I hope it helps. It's a it's a little off the beaten track, but you know what I normally teach because this doesn't come up too often with these with my experience with these government housing issues, at least in where I'm teaching, but I hope it helps keep the questions coming. If you want to submit a question go to Bluetogold.com forward slash show. And until next time, guys, keep doing the great job you doing.
When it comes to law enforcement training, we are the gold standard, visit blue gold.com or call 888-579-7796 to learn more about our training books and free webinars also, don't forget to like, subscribe and share this channel.