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Library Insists FBI Provide a Warrant before Seizing ComputersPolice and FBI officials rushed to the Newton (Mass.) Free Library January 18 after determining that an alleged threat against Brandeis University had been e-mailed from one of the library’s computers. But Library Director Kathy Glick-Weil and Newton Mayor David Cohen were adamant that law-enforcement officers comply with state privacy law and obtain a search warrant before they seized the equipment.Glick-Weil told American Libraries that about 15 police officers visited the library, including three FBI agents who “tried to convince us to let them have the computer,” one of some 20 on the library’s second-floor information technology center, without a warrant. The mayor worked with U.S. attorneys in getting the authorization, and the FBI returned to the library with the papers around 11:30 that night after the library had closed. Glick-Weil said they took three of the library’s public computers. Around noon, Brandeis University police had received an e-mail that contained a threat of some type of terrorist attack against the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, the Boston Globe reported January 26. Waltham Police Lieutenant Brian Navin said 12 university buildings and a nearby elementary school were evacuated but detectives found no explosives. “The librarian acted responsibly and in accordance with legal and constitutional requirements,” said Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts. “She was complying with the law, and we expect police officers and the FBI to do the same.” Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners spokesperson David Gray said in the January 26 Framingham MetroWest Daily News, “You cannot just go into a library and demand e-mail records. It’s not like you’re just looking at one person. You’re exposing everyone who would have used that computer.” “I found the process encouraging,” Glick-Weil said in the January 25 Newton Tab. “If law enforcement thinks it has probable cause, it can get a warrant in a timely fashion.” Posted January 27, 2006. |
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