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News: VT police attempt a warrantless library computer search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A Vermont librarian risked arrest for insisting on a search warrant when police demanded access to a library open Internet terminal in late June. See AP story today: Library Confrontation Points Up Privacy Dilemma, which is on news websites throughout the nation. The police just assumed they could take the computer without a search warrant. Children's librarian Judith Flint was getting ready for the monthly book discussion group for 8- and 9-year-olds on "Love That Dog" when police showed up. They weren't kidding around: Five state police detectives wanted to seize Kimball Public Library's public access computers as they frantically searched for a 12-year-old girl, acting on a tip that she sometimes used the terminals. Flint demanded a search warrant, touching off a confrontation that pitted the privacy rights of library patrons against the rights of police on official business...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 19, 2008 (boomark / email).