January 22, 2009

Mr. Miles K. Risley

Senior Assistant City Attorney

City of Victoria- Legal Department

P.O. Box 1758

Victoria, Texas 77902-1758

OR2009-00876

Dear Mr. Risley:

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# 333610.

The City of Victoria (the "city") received a request for a specified police 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 excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses information protected by other statutes, such as section 58.007 of the Family Code. Section 58.007 provides in pertinent part 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.

Fam. Code § 58.007(c). Law enforcement records relating to juvenile conduct, whether delinquent conduct or conduct in need of supervision, that occurred on or after September 1, 1997, are confidential under section 58.007 of the Family Code. See id. § 51.03 (defining "delinquent conduct" and "conduct indicating a need for supervision" for purposes of title 3 of the Family Code). 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 id. § 51.02(2). In this instance, the submitted report involves allegations of juveniles engaged in delinquent conduct. See id. § 51.03. It does not appear that any of the exceptions in section 58.007 of the Family Code apply to this information. Thus, the submitted report is subject to section 58.007(c), and must be withheld under section 552.101 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾

This letter ruling is limited to the particular information 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 information or any other circumstances.

This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General at (512) 475-2497.

Sincerely,

Laura E. Ream

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

LER/jb

Ref: ID# 333610

Enc. Submitted documents

cc: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. As our ruling is dispositive, we need not address your remaining argument against the disclosure of the submitted report.

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