Reference no: EM131796434

Acme Chemical Company operated a 2,000-acre chemical manufacturing facility at Tonawanda, New York. The facility consisted of numerous covered building, with manufacturing equipment and piping conduits between various buildings plainly visible from the air. Acme maintained elaborate security around the perimeter of the complex to bar ground-level public views of these areas. It also investigated any low-level flights by aircraft over the facility. Acme did not, however, attempt to conceal all manufacturing equipment within the complex from aerial views because the cost would have been prohibitive. With Acme’s consent, enforcement officials of the New York Department of Envrionmental Conservation (DEC) made an on-site inspection of two power plants in this complex. When Acme denied DEC’s request for another inspection, DEC did not seek an administrative search warrant. Instead, DEC employed a commercial aerial photographer, who used a standard camera to take photographs of the facility from various altitudes. DEC did not inform Acme of this aerial photography. Was DEC’s taking of the photographs a search prohibited by the Fourth Amendment?