Florida v. Riley - Impact

The decision essentially made it possible for law enforcement personnel to conduct aerial searches without a warrant, so long as such searches do not violate FAA regulations, yield intimate details, pose too much danger, or create too much dust, noise, or wind. An earlier decision, Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, decided on the same day as the Ciraolo case, approved aerial photography by law enforcement officers. Thus, when combined with the Dow Chemical case, the Riley decision made it possible for law enforcement officers to take photographs from at least 400 feet in the air.