AZ: Driveway next to the house was within curtilage where VIN plate on car was viewed

Defendant’s vehicle was on the curtilage, despite the fact it was parked in the front and next to the house. A police officer had to enter the see the VIN plate on the vehicle. The open nature of a driveway is its observeability, not that people are expected to enter at will. State v. Olm, 223 Ariz. 429, 224 P.3d 245, 576 Ariz. Adv. Rep. 4 (2010):

P14 It is undisputed that the officer could not see the Mustang’s VIN plate from the street, the sidewalk, the concrete walkway leading to the front door, or from the area by the front door. In order to see the VIN plate, the officer had to enter the yard. The state argues that, because the yard was actually used as a driveway, it is a semiprivate area the officer could enter without invitation or justification. See State v. Cobb, 115 Ariz. 484, 489, 566 P.2d 285, 290 (1977) (driveway generally considered “semiprivate” and resident’s privacy expectation for “activities on his driveway will generally depend on the nature of the activities and the degree of visibility from the street”); State v. Dugan, 113 Ariz. 354, 356 n.1, 555 P.2d 108, 110 n.1 (1976) (“[I]n most instances a person does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy as to a non-intrusive viewing of items in his driveway.”).

P15 We disagree. The concrete walkway clearly delineated the path guests were expected to take from the street or sidewalk to Olm’s front door. It was not necessary for the officer, or any member of the public, to leave the walkway in order to reach Olm’s front door. And, as we explained above, no reasonable member of the public would believe he or she had permission to enter the yard to peer into the vehicle. The mere fact that Olm parked his private vehicle in his yard, thus arguably converting that area to a semiprivate area, does not compel a different conclusion. Driveways are considered semiprivate areas not because members of the public reasonably could enter them without explicit permission, but because the activities and items in a driveway generally are more readily observable. See Dugan, 113 Ariz. at 356 n.1, 555 P.2d at 110 n.1. Unlike the situation in Cobb, where the officer observed a possibly stolen broach lying in plain view on the ground, 115 Ariz. at 487, 566 P.2d at 288, the officer here first had to leave the walkway, enter the yard, and peer through the vehicle’s windshield to see the VIN plate on the dashboard.