February 5, 2009

Mr. B. Ford Hamilton

Assistant City Attorney

Police Legal Advisor

Baytown Police Department

3200 North Main Street

Baytown, Texas 77521

OR2009-01527

Dear Mr. Hamilton:

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# 334645.

The Baytown Police Department (the "department") received a request for all departmental e-mail addresses. You claim that portions of the submitted information are excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101 and 552.108 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions 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. This section encompasses the doctrine of common-law privacy, which protects information from disclosure 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 must 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.

You state that the information you have marked identifies undercover officers assigned to the "special operation unit" and officers regularly assigned on a temporary basis to the "special operation unit". You further state that the release of the information you have marked would jeopardize the safety of the officers. Based on your representations and our review, we agree that section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with the "special circumstances" aspect of common-law privacy is applicable to the information you have marked. Therefore, the department must withhold the information you have marked under section 552.101 in conjunction with the "special circumstances" aspect of common-law privacy. ⁽¹⁾ The remaining information must be released to the requestor.

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,

Christopher D. Sterner

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

CDSA/eeg

Ref: ID# 334645

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

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

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