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Hey guys, it's Anthony Bandiero. Here, attorney and senior legal instructor at Blue to Gold law enforcement training, bring you the roadside chat. All right, this question comes from an officer in Alabama. So I'm looking at my email here. And basically, the question is, Can cops use binoculars to view suspects in a public area?
These they want to see, for example, you know, salesman, narcotics,
you know, and so forth. Now, does the officer need probable cause? To do that? Does the cop need probable cause to make contact and so forth? And I have your answer. The answer is  very easy. Cops can absolutely use binoculars to see anything that would be open to view, they do not have to, let's say the, the people are in a park.
And cops want to be 500 yards away. With ultra powerful binoculars. They don't want to burn their position, right? They can absolutely be five yards away, not visible to these people to the naked eye use binoculars to see what they're doing. There is no expectation of privacy when the people are in a public place from being surveilled. So that's by binoculars to say the least right? You start bringing in drones and you start bringing in pole cameras, you know, maybe sometimes the answers get a little murky, but absolutely when it comes to binoculars, so basically, binoculars are free game, except when you point them towards windows of a house, right? Or backyards, can golf get a little tricky. But especially into Windows, if you are looking into Windows, and you are seeing something that is not visible with the naked eye from a lawful vantage point, then that is a search under the Fourth Amendment. Let me give you an example.
Cops could stand on the sidewalk in front of a home and with the naked eye, see cocaine on the kitchen table. But they don't want to be on the sidewalk looking, you know this guy's house because they're going to get burned. So instead they go 200 yards back
and use binoculars and see the same thing would that be lawful? If the court believes and you're going to convince the court of this, that you could have seen the same thing with the naked eye from the sidewalk, you will win.
But if the court finds that the only way that you saw what you saw was with those binoculars, and therefore there was no way that you could observe the same thing with the naked eye from a lawful position you will lose that would be a search under the fourth amendment that would be invading the person's expectation of privacy but we have no doctrine that prevents cops from seeing things in public
including it also in cars looking into cars right your five yards away the people are in a car you're using by nose to see inside the car.
Do remember
not forget that I forgot the movie anyway. I was gonna I was giving an example of a movie and I I ended Watch right never end the watch where he's using like the binos like he's you know, he's only using the monocle right? And he's watching the house. That's that's a lawful use of binoculars right? He's looking at the outside looking at the front of the house. But using those same binoculars to look into Windows is more problematic. You have to justify what I told you all right, there it is. Let's not make this too long. Let's and off there, guys. You know, I'm gonna ask you hit that like or comment let YouTube know I'm doing a good job so they share it with other cops. Right? Number two hit that subscribe button. Let's get this to 10s of 1000s of cops. And number three my friends. Share this video with your friends if you found it helpful. That's it. And until next time, keep doing the great job you're doing out there.
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