The AP has posted some of the controversy regarding the Police search of public computers at a Vermont Library:

[Children’s Librarian] Flint was firm in her confrontation with the police.

“The lead detective said to me that they need to take the public computers and I said `OK, show me your warrant and that will be that,'” said Flint, 56. “He did say he didn’t need any paper. I said `You do.’ He said `I’m just trying to save a 12-year-old girl,’ and I told him `Show me the paper.'”

Cybersecurity expert Fred H. Cate, a law professor at Indiana University, said the librarians acted appropriately.

“If you’ve told all your patrons `We won’t hand over your records unless we’re ordered to by a court,’ and then you turn them over voluntarily, you’re liable for anything that goes wrong,” he said.

The conflict stems from the urgency of the investigation to find a missing child, and the fact that the Police attempted to seize and search public systems without oversight authorization. On the one hand it is easy to see the need for expediting a search for information, but on the other it is hard to imagine why there was any delay in getting a warrant.