January 10, 2008

Mr. Charles H. Weir

Assistant City Attorney

City of San Antonio

P. O. Box 839966

San Antonio, Texas 78283

OR2008-00570

Dear Ms. Tom:

You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID #299163.

The San Antonio Police Department (the "department") received a request for a specified police report. You claim that the submitted report is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code.

We note that the requested report was at issue in a previous ruling from this office, Open Records Letter No. 2007-09042 (2007). In Open Records Letter No. 2007-09042, this office determined that the report at issue was confidential under section 58.007 of the Family Code and must be withheld under section 552.101 of the Government Code. Upon review, it does not appear, nor do the department or the requestor represent to us, that the law, facts, and circumstances on which this prior ruling was based have changed. Accordingly, you must continue to withhold the information at issue based on section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007 of the Family Code. See Open Records Letter No. 673 (2001) (so long as law, facts, circumstances on which prior ruling was based have not changed, first type of previous determination exists where requested information is precisely same information as was addressed in a prior attorney general ruling, ruling is addressed to same governmental body, and ruling concludes that information is or is not excepted from disclosure).

This letter ruling is limited to the particular records at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other records or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For example, governmental bodies are prohibited from asking the attorney general to reconsider this ruling. Gov't Code § 552.301(f). If the governmental body wants to challenge this ruling, the governmental body must file suit in Travis County within 30 calendar days. Id. § 552.324(b). In order to get the full benefit of such a challenge, the governmental body must file suit within 10 calendar days. Id. § 552.353(b)(3), (c). If the governmental body does not appeal this ruling and the governmental body does not comply with it, then both the requestor and the attorney general have the right to file suit against the governmental body to enforce this ruling. Id. § 552.321(a).

If this ruling requires the governmental body to release all or part of the requested information, the governmental body is responsible for taking the next step. Based on the statute, the attorney general expects that, upon receiving this ruling, the governmental body will either release the public records promptly pursuant to section 552.221(a) of the Government Code or file a lawsuit challenging this ruling pursuant to section 552.324 of the Government Code. If the governmental body fails to do one of these things, then the requestor should report that failure to the attorney general's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. The requestor may also file a complaint with the district or county attorney. Id. § 552.3215(e).

If this ruling requires or permits the governmental body to withhold all or some of the requested information, the requestor can challenge that decision by suing the governmental body. Id. § 552.321(a); Texas Dep't of Pub. Safety v. Gilbreath, 842 S.W.2d 408, 411 (Tex. App.--Austin 1992, no writ).

Please remember that under the Act the release of information triggers certain procedures for costs and charges to the requestor. If records are released in compliance with this ruling, be sure that all charges for the information are at or below the legal amounts. Questions or complaints about over-charging must be directed to Hadassah Schloss at the Office of the Attorney General at (512) 475-2497.

If the governmental body, the requestor, or any other person has questions or comments about this ruling, they may contact our office. Although there is no statutory deadline for contacting us, the attorney general prefers to receive any comments within 10 calendar days of the date of this ruling.

Sincerely,

Reg Hargrove

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

RJH/eeg

Ref: ID# 299163

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Ms. Mary Tom

Child Advocates, San Antonio

406 San Pedro

San Antonio, Texas 78212

(w/o enclosures)

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