 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
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March 12, 2009 Ms. Cherl K. Byles Assistant City Attorney City of Fort Worth 1000 Throckmorton Street Fort Worth, Texas 76102 OR2009-03265 Dear Ms. Byles: 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# 337515 (PIR# 1285-09). The City of Fort Worth (the "city") received a request for information related to a specified accident. You state that some of the requested information has been released, but claim that some of the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. (1) 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." This section encompasses information protected by other statutes. Chapter 772 of the Health and Safety Code authorizes the development of local emergency communications districts. Section 772.218 of the Health and Safety Code applies to an emergency 9-1-1 district for a county with a population over 860,000 and established in accordance with chapter 772. Section 772.218 makes confidential the originating telephone numbers and addresses of 9-1-1 callers that are furnished by a service supplier. See Open Records Decision No. 649 (1996). You state that the city is part of an emergency communication district that was established under section 772.218. You also state that the telephone numbers at issue were provided by a service provider. Thus, based on your representations and our review, we agree that the city must withhold the telephone numbers you have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 772.218 of the Health and Safety Code. Section 552.101 also encompasses criminal history record information ("CHRI") generated by the National Crime Information Center or by the Texas Crime Information Center. Title 28 of part 20 of the Code of Federal Regulations governs the release of CHRI that states obtain from the federal government or other states. Open Records Decision No. 565 (1990). The federal regulations allow each state to follow its individual law with respect to CHRI it generates. Id. Section 411.083 of the Government Code deems confidential CHRI that the Department of Public Safety ("DPS") maintains, except that DPS may disseminate this information as provided in chapter 411, subchapter F of the Government Code. See Gov't Code § 411.083. The remaining submitted information does not contain CHRI for purposes of chapter 411; therefore, none of the information at issue is confidential under chapter 411, and the city may not withhold any information under section 552.101 of the Government Code on that ground. Section 552.101 also 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). To demonstrate the applicability of common-law privacy, both prongs of this test must be satisfied. Id. at 681-82. 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, we find that a compilation of a private citizen's criminal history is generally not of legitimate concern to the public. The remaining submitted information does not contain criminal history information that is confidential under common-law privacy; therefore, the city may not withhold any of the information at issue under section 552.101 on that ground. To conclude, the city must withhold under section 552.101 of the Government Code the information you have marked under section 772.218 of the Health and Safety Code. The city must release the remaining information 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, Cindy Nettles Assistant Attorney General Open Records Division CN/jb Ref: ID# 337515 Enc. Submitted documents c: Requestor (w/o enclosures)
1. You state that the city has redacted certain Texas motor vehicle record information under
section 552.130 of the Government Code pursuant to the previous determinations issued to the city in Open
Records Letter Nos. 2006-14726 (2006) and 2007-00198 (2007), and social security numbers pursuant to
section 552.147 of the Government Code. See Gov't Code §§ 552.147 (b), 552.301(a); Open Records Decision
No. 673 at 7-8 (2001). POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |