The officers then call reinforcements and go to the apartment which the occupants entered. They knock on the door and ask the suspects to step outside for identification. All of the suspects step outside, and no other people remain inside. While the door is open, Officer Gonzales sees the yellow plastic bag on top of a table within the apartment. Gonzales enters the apartment, opens the bag, and finds several hundred packages similar to the one dropped. Gonzales determines that they contain heroin and the bag is seized. All of the suspects are arrested.

Questions:
(A)Was the officer entitled to retrieve the dropped package? Was reasonable suspicion/ probable cause required? How would the Katz test affect this analysis?

(B)Assuming the retrieval of the package is ok, what were the officers entitled to do based on the evidence that the package contained heroin? Were the officers entitled to enter the apartment without a warrant to examine the yellow plastic bag after seeing it through the doorway?

Additional facts: The apartment building contains numerous drug dealers known to be armed. On previous occasions, officers have been shot at while around the apartments. The arrest is very unpopular and the officers feel they are in danger.

How do these facts affect the entry into the apartment and the resulting seizure of the bag?

Adam King
Wake Forest

ANSWERS
(A)
Officer could probably retrieve the package because it was in plain view (legally on premises/incriminating nature of item apparent/lawful right of access) as long as the officer had probable cause to believe that the incriminating nature of the dropped item was immediately apparent.  The information from the informant was probably sufficient to satisfy this requirement under totality of the circumstances.  Under Katz, if the defendant had no "justifiable expectation of privacy", then the Fourth Amendment does not apply.
(B)
The officers were still required to obtain a warrant before entering the apartment.  They violated the lawful right of access requirement to qualify for the plain view doctrine.