 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
 |
June 3, 2008 Mr. David K. Walker County Attorney Montgomery County 207 West Phillips, 1st Floor Conroe, Texas 77301 OR2008-07524 Dear Mr. Walker: 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# 311806. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Department (the "sheriff") received a request for a specified incident report. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information. Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. Section 552.101 encompasses information protected by other statutes, such as section 58.007 of the Family Code. Juvenile law enforcement records relating to conduct that occurred on or after September 1, 1997 are confidential under section 58.007. For purposes of section 58.007, "child" means a person who is ten years of age or older and under seventeen years of age. See Fam. Code § 51.02(2). The relevant language of section 58.007 reads as follows: (c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), law enforcement records and files concerning a child and information stored, by electronic means or otherwise, concerning the child from which a record or file could be generated may not be disclosed to the public and shall be: (1) if maintained on paper or microfilm, kept separate from adult files and records; (2) if maintained electronically in the same computer system as records or files relating to adults, be accessible under controls that are separate and distinct from controls to access electronic data concerning adults; and (3) maintained on a local basis only and not sent to a central state or federal depository, except as provided by Subchapter B, D, and E. . . . (e) Law enforcement records and files concerning a child may be inspected or copied by a juvenile justice agency as that term is defined by Section 58.101, a criminal justice agency as that term is defined by Section 411.082, Government Code, the child, and the child's parent or guardian. . . . (j) Before a child or a child's parent or guardian may inspect or copy a record or file concerning the child under Subsection (e), the custodian of the record or file shall redact: (1) any personally identifiable information about a juvenile suspect, offender, victim, or witness who is not the child; and (2) any information that is excepted from required disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code, or other law. Id. §58.007(c), (e), (j). We have reviewed the information at issue and find it involves allegations of delinquent juvenile conduct that occurred after September 1, 1997. Thus, this information is subject to section 58.007. However, we note that the requestor is the grandmother of the juvenile suspect. If the requestor is the legal guardian of the juvenile suspect listed in the submitted report, then under section 58.007(e), she may inspect or copy any law enforcement records concerning her own grandchild. Id. § 58.007(e). If the requestor is not the guardian of the juvenile suspect in this report, then the sheriff must withhold the submitted information pursuant to section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007(c) of the Family Code. In the event the requestor has a right of access to the submitted information pursuant to section 58.007(e), we note that section 58.007(j) provides that information subject to any other exception to disclosure under the Act or other law must be redacted. See id. § 58.007(j)(2). We note that the submitted information contains information that is subject to section 552.130 of the Government Code. (1) Section 552.130 excepts from public disclosure information that relates to "a motor vehicle operator's or driver's license or permit issued by an agency of this state[.]" Gov't Code § 552.130(a)(1). The sheriff must withhold the information we have marked under section 552.130 of the Government Code. In summary, if the requestor is not the guardian of the juvenile suspect in the submitted information, then the sheriff must withhold the submitted information pursuant to section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007(c) of the Family Code. If the requestor is the guardian of the juvenile suspect in the submitted information, the sheriff must release the submitted information to the requestor pursuant to section 58.007(e) of the Family Code. The sheriff must withhold the marked Texas motor vehicle record information under section 552.130 of the Government Code. (2) The remaining information must be released pursuant to section 58.007(e) of the Family Code. (3) 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, Nancy E. Griffiths Assistant Attorney General Open Records Division NEG/jb Ref: ID# 311806 Enc. Submitted documents Footnotes1. The Office of the Attorney General will raise a mandatory exception on behalf of a governmental
body, but ordinarily will not raise other exceptions. Open Records Decision Nos. 481 (1987), 480 (1987), 470
(1987).
We note that the submitted information contains social security numbers. Section 552.147(b) of the
Government Code authorizes a governmental body to redact a living person's social security number from
public release without the necessity of requesting a decision from this office under the Act. The requestor has
a right, however, to her social security number and her grandchild's social security number if the requestor is
her granddaughter's authorized representative. See generally Gov't Code § 552.023(b) (governmental body
may not deny access to person to whom information relates, or that person's representative, solely on grounds
that information is considered confidential by privacy principles).
We note that the requestor has a right of access to information being released that otherwise would
be excepted from disclosure under the Act. See Gov't Code § 552.023. Thus, the sheriff must again seek a
decision from this office if it receives a request for this information from a different requestor.
POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |