Girl's case had library, cops in privacy standoff

"Standing on principle" at the risk of a child's safety strikes me as extremely narcissistic. What if the computers had contained material information that could had led to the safe recovery of the victim, but instead she had been lost due to the librarian's "principles"? How would she have justified that to the victim's family?

I'm sorry, but the part when the officer says, "I am just trying to save a 12 year old girl is the part where I would say, "Take whatever you need." not "show me the paper."

Not that it owuld have helped in this case but that woman is a total bitch. The cops were trying to save someone, let them look. They were interested in one person, not some witch hunt for anybody doing bad things. I'd like to see what she would say if someone in her family was in the same circumstances and that search ran into the same thing. Plus it was a public libray probably funded with public money, so it was really a city office, which they can search at any time.

I agree Pete.

I have to wonder, if the librarians would have allowed access would the child have been saved??? It's a fine line between protecting the privacy of all library patrons and impeding a police investigation to find a missing (now deceased) child.

It's just my opinion but as a mother and also someone who absolutely requires privacy I think there should be some sort of middle ground that speeds the process while protecting privacy.

That librarian so brave standing up to cops like that. So brave that she stopped the cops from possibly finding a 12 year old girl. she is a fool and the other librarian that cheered are fools. Do you think they will be cheering if they find that girl dead because she slowed the police down from finding her

"Standing on priniciple" when a child's safety is at risk strikes me as extremely narcissitic. What if the computers had contained relevant information that could have led to the safe recovery of the child, but instead she had been lost due to the librarian's "principles". How could she have justified her vain obstruction to the victim's family? Is it really reasonable for library patrons to have an expectation to privacy when using public equipment?

Wow, this just blows my mind! It is sickening to think this librarian feels proud of her rights, and the rights of others. Gee...don't wonder why the world is the way it is....let's protect the sick and twisted things we do, and call it 'privacy' or 'our rights'. So this librarian is sacrificing the life of a little child for WHAT?!?!?!? And what is it we have to hide. Here is a fact - if we would spend our time helping others and making sure our children are safe....that is nothing to hide. Miss Librarian ( I care about people, so I won't call you something else), think about this long and hard, and maybe in the privacy of a deserted dark alley...

So anytime police want to search anything it's OK, because every single scenario every time will always be a ticking time-bomb. Maybe. I'm not an authority on police procedure, but I would think the state police would KNOW whether or not they needed a search warrant-that is their JOB.
Blaming the librarian for that little girls death is wrong. The sick, evil man who murdered her is the killer. If the police felt THAT strongly about the "tip", then they should have TAKEN the evidence, librarians be damned. If your so absolutely CERTAIN that a girls life is at stake (your tip is THAT SOLID) why would you let a bunch of mousy little librarians stand in your way?

This story made me so angry that I had to look the library where this ... woman works. (I will be respectful by not using the appropriate descriptors.) I have found their e-mail address and suggest that everyone who is sickened as much as I am by this woman's conduct to contact the library and demand that she be fired. Her behavior is beyond reprehensible.

randolph@vals.state.vt.us

My outrage has subsided now that I see others have said it for me. All things need to be tried to save a child when time is key. Although the liberal press portrays her as a hero I do not see her that way. Don't they call it "Public" library. Where is the expectation of privacy? Aren't we all responsible for the safety of a child? And if it takes a village shouldn't the village first protect the young? Those poor officers. I wonder if any of them slept that night.

That's really nice that Ms. Flint followed procedure to the letter of the law (and other librarians applauded her for it) and delayed the police search for potential information leading to the whereabouts of an abducted child. Hurrah for her! I guess that shows the little librarian has a big set of juevos when it comes to staring down the big bad police. But if I lived in her city, I wouldn't be sending my 8 year old to her library for story time any time soon...I wouldn't entrust my child into the care of librarians who have so much legalistic but so little critical thinking skills going on....I know of very FEW rules that don't have to be compromised, as needed, when there is a life and death situation going on. I would, however, if I was surfing less than reputable web sites, feel like Ms. Flint was the Librarian of the Year. That little girl's family must have been in sheer agony for the entire 8 hours the library delayed the police in their recovery efforts. But congratulations to her and her library for a job well done! I hope they took up a collection and sent flowers to the child's funeral as a gesture of (delayed) empathy....

This is why terrorists think they can defeat us. We have idiots like this woman who has about as much common sense as a snail. Maybe less.

I don't know if she has a family, but I wish it were her kid.

If a 12 year old is missing it would seem to be a wise decision to help find the child, not hold up the process I think the police should have been given acess by not doing so could mean the difference of a safe return or not.

THIS LADY IS AN IDIOT! What if that were your child, your cousin, your daughters best friend,or better yet YOU?? How mad were the parents when they found out some chick with short person syndrome felt the need to be important and block a police investagation? This lady is a straight loon!!

Freedom is not without risk, we cannot just waive the law to "save the children" You give police an inch, and they take a mile. She obeyed the law, and people are mad at her for that? Something is wrong. People toss the world kid in, and they fall over to give up their rights.

The library did not delay the search, the police did. They knew they needed a warrent, why did they not get it first? Why did it take the police 8 hours to get one? That sounds like the problem here.

Unbelievable how the librarian would delay an investigation into the disappearance of a young girl! This article seems to condone taking the law too far and being ignorant about the law's intent. I'm ashamed to be an American if this is how judicial system is skewing law. Absurd. That librarian is heartless; and to "Tired of Silly" geting a warrant takes a judge's signature and sometimes it takes hours to obtain that --- hours a young girl may not have. First of all a library is a publc system. There should be no privacy on taxpayer public computers. I hope they find the girl alive; and they don't the librarian should be held accountable.

What really gets me is the fact that these are public computers that are owned by the state, or at least the city. Patrons should have no privacy rights on public computers. Why dose the state have to get a warrant to look at its own computers?

No one is blaming the libraian for the child's death, she was most likely dead already. But in a case like this it is priority number one to get the child as fast as possible, I think the stat is they are usualy killed within hours of the disappearence. Would you want to wait for a piece of paper while your child is being murdered? "Oh, I'm sorry Mr Smith but your daughter has been dead for an hour but we had to wait for the search warrant, the judge made us change the wordking because we did it wrong, so that delayed us, we'll do better next time."

The librarian could have helped them get some very basic info off the machine that they needed instead of being a stupid idiot.

Public librarys are not safe for your children to be at unsupervised. Thats the message that is important.
For all you know a librarian could be a predator.Lessening the time to get a judge to give a warrat is still not going to prevent a predator from performing his/ her plansed communications. Only the parent can supervise responsibly. Gone are the days when children were a communitys pride, now its all about escaping responsibility and unrealistic civil liberties.

I hardly think there should be an expectation of privacy in a publicly funded library. I work for the City, and anything I do on my computer, any web site I visit or any e-mail I send, is automatically covered by the MO Sunshine Law as public information. Our library is operated by the City, using public funds. I don't see that it would be any different for a regular citizen to use City equipment at the library than for me to use it at my office. Personally, if I were to use a public library computer, I would not expect anything I do to be protected, but would instead expect that whatever I do could become public knowledge. If you are doing something in a place of public gathering, then you shouldn't be expecting any privacy.

at least one of the troopers/policemen knew what was right and yet kept quiet. it's the same that we call ourselves a christian nation and decimated the american indians, blacks, mexican americans, asian, and other minorities. kudos to the librarian and shame to you know who.

This could go either way. But I think in the interest of a child's safety, the woman should have given the cops whatever they asked for. Had they found something to incriminate someone else on a different charge, it certainly would have been inadmissable in court as being illegally obtained.

This woman is no hero for stalling police in their search for the girl. She should be locked up for obstruction and be thankful it wasn't my child. Maybe the 8 hour delay didn't make a difference, but she had no way to know it at the time.

I think this lady should get to view the autopsy up close and personal. Perhaps her idealistic views might change a bit.