{"id":2275,"date":"2008-07-19T14:25:53","date_gmt":"2008-07-19T14:24:57","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-07-19T14:24:57","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=2275","title":{"rendered":"News:  VT police attempt a warrantless library computer search"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/stories\/2008\/07\/19\/ap\/national\/main4275280.shtml\">Library Confrontation Points Up Privacy Dilemma<\/a>, which is on news websites throughout the nation. The police just assumed they could take the computer without a search warrant.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Children&#8217;s librarian Judith Flint was getting ready for the monthly book discussion group for 8- and 9-year-olds on &#8220;Love That Dog&#8221; when police showed up.<\/p>\n<p>They weren&#8217;t kidding around: Five state police detectives wanted to seize Kimball Public Library&#8217;s public access computers as they frantically searched for a 12-year-old girl, acting on a tip that she sometimes used the terminals.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s one of the most difficult situations a library can face,&#8221; said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of intellectual freedom issues for the American Library Association.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators did obtain a warrant about eight hours later, but the June 26 standoff in the 105-year-old, red brick library on Main Street frustrated police and had fellow librarians cheering Flint.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Before this search even took place, <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.librarylaw.com\/librarylaw\/2008\/05\/congratulations.html\">Vermont librarians<\/a> were already big into privacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>b2evALnk.b2WPAutP <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=2275\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"pingsdone","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}