[stormbrew]

Is looking in a window not itself a 'search'? Like, a police officer dragging a street by looking in every window for pot or guns would presumably be indiscriminately searching without probably cause, why would it be different with tickets in windows legally?

My experience though is this particular style of parking pass is usually on private property where the people checking are not part of a branch of police though, and thus I think are not bound against unreasonable search in the same way?

[dragonwriter]

> Is looking in a window not itself a 'search'?

No, by the plain view doctrine information gathered at least by normal human senses without a physical trespass is not a search.

> Like, a police officer dragging a street by looking in every window for pot or guns would presumably be indiscriminately searching without probably cause

No, they wouldn't, just like a police officer indiscriminately looking through your car window for violations of cellphone use while driving laws without any particular cause isn't.

[stormbrew]

Fair enough. Today I learned.

[wil421]

I know for searches you need to have a reasonable expectation of privacy for the search to be illegal.

For example, I saw an article a few years ago where a cop was literally walking a drug dog around a house. The dog detected drugs so they busted the door down. The courts threw the case out, there was no reason for a drug dog to be searching around his house.

I’d expect if you had a drugs or a dead body in plain view of a window then your expectation of privacy is gone.