OK so it's no secret that trash is a preemo source for evidence during an investigation.  In the USA at least, It was ruled that once your trash is out on the sidewalk, it's up for grabs. 

The thing about investigations like that, is that it's a bit of a role reversal.  If the person being investigated realizes what's going on, everything is ruined.   

Makes me wonder what sorts of deep undercover missions pigs are willing to go on for such occasions.
Do they....
-Dress up like a can collector?
naah that would be too obvious since they would want all of the trash to look through, where as can collectors only pick out a few cans,
-Drive up in an unmarked police car and snatch it?
too obvious, no room for trash bags. 
-have their own mock garbage truck?
far fetched, but it would work
-make the garbage guys set the person's trash aside?
no way


How could one arrange for counter surveillance?  Maybe an rf transmitter hidden in the trash, to watch where it goes?

man i scatter the shit everyehre in a pub dumpster have fun piggies catalouging and figerprinting; have a nice day btiches!!!

No no, i'm not wondering about this in the event that incriminating things had been put in one's trash. 
That's just completelly stupid.  I'm saying there must be a way to find out if one's trash is being looked through, casue a nice early warning can be a useful thing to know.

(When the garbage trucks come rolling, I would be going outside and counting my trash bags like they where my children, for example)

in big citeies there's too much shit you can even smell it you think they gonnal go throught htis kind of trouble when they could jsut throw some dope on you get real man.

Given that the "trash collection" is, what appears to me, a NORMATIVE part of an investigation - so why not be VERY fucking careful and not only, not put ONE piece of evidence in it, but also set up a camera on it. You see anyone do anything with it bar putting it straight into the normal truck and other binloads on top, my advice would come down to one word - MOVE

this is precisely what this thread is about.   Safe elimination of sensitive trash is a seperate topic, brought up plenty of times over plenty of mediums.  I'm interested in counter surveillance, in this one particular instance where it is feesable, and could really be worth while.

yeah , I guess putting up a camera is the one and only realistic option.  the movie Scarface brings up painful associations though....


There must be some way to find out what they actually do. 

Also, a big NO-NO is having a seperate trash bin that gets added at the last second.  This was what got LE's attention in the first place in the case/investigation that led to the ruling that trash picking is admissable evidence.  The guy was running a 6 figure cocaine operation, and the last trash bin would be filled with packaging materials.







Yeah a camera is

I remember a case down here years ago, a guy was running a large meth operation that the police knew about through informers etc. There was one officer that would go to the house during the night (or early morning) and rifle through it there and then. He ended up finding a shopping list for a drug lab, and that was enough to warrant further investigations and ultimately bring down his entire operation. Sounds like a BS story? I omitted most of the details so it did sound realistic, here;
its a real long article, here is the part in question;

The Age
Good cop, Bad cop
http://150.theage.com.au/view_bestofarticle.asp?intid=120


"AT 1.22 PM on 8 April 1992, McCulloch received a message to ring the Selby Medical and Scientific Supplies. A man named James Sweetin had made some questionable purchases, he was told. The next day, he went to the company's Mulgrave office and was given a list of chemicals and lab gear the man had bought. Sweetin was clearly intending to produce speed.McCulloch was able to trace Sweetin to Peter Pilarinos, a gangster-figure well known to police. His brother owned a St Kilda nightclub often used for detective functions and fundraisers. Off-duty policemen had worked on the door as security over the years.McCulloch went to Pilarinos's home, spread over three big blocks on a hill in Doncaster. At 4.35am on 13 June, he sifted through his suspect's wheelie bin and found two recipes for speed that had been ripped up and stuffed in a tin of dog food.Next to the chemical methylamine was marked $0.00. McCulloch didn't know that the nil amount meant it had already been stolen from the drug squad compound in Attwood in a conspiracy authorised by a corrupt police officer.

Nor did he know that he was being sold out.

Sweetin's telephone was being tapped and, on 29 September, police monitored a phone call from Sweetin to drug associate Ken Milton, who said he was about to find out if the phone was bugged. When he rang back he was in no doubt. "Don't say my name, treat your rear vision mirrors like guardian angels, treat this thing like everybody is listening."The next day, police broke into a house in Ferntree Gully which was being used as a speed lab. All the equipment had been re-boxed. The gang had been tipped off and had cancelled their cook."
end-

The corrupt detective was giving them access to 44 gallon drums of methylamine that had been confiscated, they would empty them out and replace them with Coca-Cola. It is really an interesting read they dont mention a lot of things in the article but it was well documented when it happened, I remember they took a copy of an early edition of Festers secrets of methamphetamine manufacture among many other things from the confiscated items.

I would imagine nowadays there is much more of it going on and the people are more savvy to it. So better techniques such as renting (or commandeering) a garbage truck, and going and picking up the trash at house in question and then returning and rifling.

Most people have fireplaces, don't they?

Burning paper is probably cheaper, and also takes care of plastics, etc.. can also take care of residues, or really anything incriminating. I guess make sure broken glass is also very well broken - or keep it for use of boiling stones if broken correctly and possibly treated with a caustic solution for nucleation points?

So long as the trash is by the curb, or accessible from a public place, there is no invasion of your privacy in items you have discarded.

You have no right to privacy in things you have abandoned.

The police work with garbage trucks by arranging for them to compact any trash they've dropped in the back of the truck immediately prior to picking up the suspect's garbage. The truck will then drive without compacting that garbage to a prearranged location where the police will take custody of the garbage that has not been compacted in the truck.

If you ever see the truck compact the load just before it gets to your trash, then leave without picking up the neighbor's trash... you can bet  some cop is going through your trash.

There are problems with what the stuff in your trash actually establishes, but it is usually enough for a search warrant. Since the trash is not something that is guarded and cannot be accessed by third parties prior to pickup, its almost impossible to show the homeowner where the trash was collected actually possessed the stuff in the can. Stuff in the can is enough for probable cause for a search, however.

geez, is this just speculation or you really know?  I'm not asking to explain how you know it for a fact, your word will be sufficient.




jon, ever watch Breaking Bad?  Except in real life one would use H2SO4.

A Lye bath is good for paper, even just soaking in water will make it into paper mache.
This is for those of us who couldn't even have a firewood fire without attracting attention and getting a ticket.

Someone I know has a hidden camera facing his garbage the night before garbage day. He always makes sure he puts the garbage out the night before so the police have an easy opportunity to retrieve it.  He has the camera recording any movements around the garbage using a program I think is called Webcam Zone Trigger. It records any movement around the garbage all night so you don't have to sit there next day watching 12 hours of video. He said he's busted everyone from his neighbours putting garbage in his cans to bums searching for pop bottles early in the morning. It even catches odd garbage man behavior. If you can catch your neighbour putting garbage in your can and have it on record, that might be an excuse you could provide in court if the police find incriminating items in the cans at a later time - you know the whole "beyond a reasonable doubt" thing.

Here are some articles that cover this exact topic in Canada:

http://blog.torontodefencelawyers.com/2009/08/police-can-legally-search-garbage-without-a-warrant/

http://www.canada.com/news/court+rule+legality+searching+trash/1478713/story.html

http://www.canada.com/news/Supreme+Court+trashes+garbage+privacy+argument/1481504/story.html

Having a camera on your garbage might be the best "heads up" one could ever get. Also, up here in Canada, the police typically just search the garbage themselves, usually around 3-5AM from the court transcripts I've read in recent years and stories I've heard from others. One guy I know even got a letter from the City asking him to stop putting his dog's shit in the garbage cans. LOL! I guess the police hate picking through Fido's crap. LOL How would the City know there was dog shit in the cans when it was in the garbage bags, hmmmm. Makes you think.

Great topic BTW

Thanks SolarN!  Great reply, glad to see someone else has thought of this.  I suppose the only weakness in your friends method would be geezmeister's explanation of how they take garbage.  Maybe it would be a good idea to have the camera angled sideways-ish, so as to be able to see if there was any other trash in the garbage truck, and whether it did or didn't stop for others' trash.