January 26, 2009

Mr. C. Patrick Phillips

Assistant City Attorney

City of Fort Worth

1000 Throckmorton Street, 3^rd Floor

Fort Worth, Texas 76102

OR2009-00944

Dear Mr. Phillips:

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# 333009 (PIR No. 0442-09).

The Fort Worth Police Department (the "department") received a request for a specified incident report involving a named individual. You state that you have redacted Texas motor vehicle record information under section 552.130 of the Government Code pursuant to the previous determinations issued to the City of Fort Worth in Open Records Letter Nos. 2006-14726 (2006) and 2007-00198 (2007). See Gov't Code § 552.301(a); Open Records Decision No. 673 at 7-8 (2001). You also state that you are withholding social security numbers under section 552.147 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ You claim that portions of the remaining requested information are 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," and encompasses the doctine of common-law privacy. Gov't Code § 552.101. Information is protected from disclosure by the common-law right to privacy when (1) it is highly intimate or embarrassing, such that its release would be highly objectionable to a person of ordinary sensibilities, and (2) there is no legitimate public interest in its disclosure. See Indus. Found.v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976). Information may be withheld under section 552.101 in conjunction with common-law privacy upon a showing of "special circumstances." See Open Records Decision No. 169 (1977). This office considers "special circumstances" to refer to a very narrow set of situations in which the release of information would likely cause someone to face "an imminent threat of physical danger." Id. at 6. Such "special circumstances" do not include "a generalized and speculative fear of harassment or retribution." Id.

In this instance, the department informs us release of the highlighted information, which identifies undercover officers, would not only compromise the effectiveness of these individuals as undercover officers, but would likely cause the officers to face "imminent threat of physical danger." Based on these representations and our review, we agree that the department must withhold the highlighted information under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with the "special circumstances" aspect of common-law privacy. The remaining submitted information must be released.

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,

Jennifer Luttrall

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JL/eeg

Ref: ID# 333009

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. 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.

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