Make no mistake: We think that Sprint refusing to help freaked out parents locate their carjacked baby is awful. Whether Sprint’s policy states that customers need to pay a $25 fee to subpoena the information or not, an exception should probably have been made. (Sprint has stated that emergency procedure was not followed.)

But we can’t help but feel a little empathy for the CSR who took that call from distressed parents, who had to make an on-the-spot decision whether to break form and give out the information or to stick to protocol to protect customer information from a scammer.

What’s the right answer in a situation like this? We certainly don’t want our location information given out to anyone who can reasonably emulate hysterics, but the traditional subpoena process already established between phone companies and the police is obviously too slow.

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