February 25, 2009

Ms. Jerris Penrod Mapes

Assistant City Attorney

Killeen Police Department

402 North Second Street

Killeen, Texas 76541-5298

OR2009-02458

Dear Ms. Mapes:

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# 336750.

The Killeen Police Department (the "department") received a request for all arrest records and records of calls for service related to a specified individual at a specified address between February 14, 2000, and April 14, 2000. You state that you have released portions of the requested information to the requestor. 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 the doctrine of common-law privacy, which protects information that (1) contains highly intimate or embarrassing facts the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person and (2) is not of legitimate concern to the public. Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976). A compilation of an individual's criminal history is highly embarrassing information, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person. Cf. U. S. Dep't of Justice v. Reporters Comm. for Freedom of the Press, 489 U.S. 749, 764 (1989) (finding significant privacy interest in compilation of individual's criminal history by recognizing distinction between public records found in courthouse files and local police stations and compiled summary of criminal history information). Furthermore, a compilation of a private citizen's criminal history is generally not of legitimate concern to the public.

The present request requires the department to compile unspecified police records concerning the individual in the request. Therefore, to the extent that the department maintains law enforcement records depicting the named individual as a suspect, arrestee, or criminal defendant, the department must withhold such information under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy.

The type of information considered intimate and embarrassing by the Texas Supreme Court in Industrial Foundation also included information relating to sexual assault, pregnancy, mental or physical abuse in the workplace, illegitimate children, psychiatric treatment of mental disorders, attempted suicide, and injuries to sexual organs. See 540 S.W.2d at 683. Additionally, this office has found that some kinds of medical information or information indicating disabilities or specific illnesses are excepted from required public disclosure under common-law privacy. See Open Records Decision Nos. 470 (1987) (illness from severe emotional and job-related stress), 455 (1987) (prescription drugs, illnesses, operations, and physical handicaps). Generally, only highly intimate information that implicates the privacy of an individual is withheld. However, in certain instances, where it is demonstrated that the requestor knows the identity of the individual involved, as well as the nature of certain incidents, the entire report must be withheld to protect the individual's privacy. In this instance, Call for Service Reports 00013379 and 00012294 reveal that the requestor knows the identity of the individual involved as well as the nature of the information in the submitted reports. Therefore, withholding only the individual's identity or certain details of the incident from the requestor would not preserve the subject individual's common-law right of privacy. Thus, the department must withhold Call for Service Reports 00013379 and 00012294 in their entirety under section 552.101 in conjunction with common-law privacy.

In summary, pursuant to section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy, the department must withhold any law enforcement records that the department maintains depicting the individual named in the request as a suspect, arrestee, or criminal defendant. On the same basis, the department also must withhold Call for Service Reports 00013379 and 00012294 in their entirety.

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,

Ryan T. Mitchell

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

RTM/jb

Ref: ID# 336750

Enc. Submitted documents

cc: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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