 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
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March 10, 2010 Mr. C. Patrick Phillips Assistant City Attorney City of Fort Worth 1000 Throckmorton Street, 3rd Floor Fort Worth, Texas 76102 OR2010-03446 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# 376924 (PIR No. 2082-10). The City of Fort Worth (the "city") received a request for a specified police report. You state you have redacted certain Texas motor vehicle record information relating to individuals other than the requestor under section 552.130 of the Government Code pursuant to previous determinations issued to the city. (1) You also state you have redacted social security numbers under section 552.147 of the Government Code. (2) You claim that some of 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 information protected by other statutes, such as section 58.007 of the Family Code. Juvenile law enforcement records relating to conduct that occurred on or after September 1, 1997 are confidential under section 58.007. For the purposes of section 58.007, "child" means a person who is ten years of age or older and under seventeen years of age. See Fam. Code § 51.02(2). The relevant language of section 58.007 reads 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 Subchapters B, D, and E. . . . (e) Law enforcement records and files concerning a child may be inspected or copied by a juvenile justice agency as that term is defined by Section 58.101, a criminal justice agency as that term is defined by Section 411.082, Government Code, the child, and the child's parent or guardian. . . . (j) Before a child or a child's parent or guardian may inspect or copy a record or file concerning the child under Subsection (e), the custodian of the record or file shall redact: (1) any personally identifiable information about a juvenile suspect, offender, victim, or witness who is not the child and (2) any information that is excepted from required disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code, or other law. Id. § 58.007(c), (e), (j). The information in the submitted report consists of law enforcement records of juveniles who engaged in delinquent conduct after September 1, 1997. See id. § 51.03 (defining "delinquent conduct" for purposes of Fam. Code § 58.007). Thus, this information is subject to section 58.007. You indicate that the requestor is a representative of one of the juvenile offenders listed in the report. Under section 58.007(e), the requestor may inspect law enforcement records concerning this child. Id. § 58.007(e). However, personally identifiable information concerning any other juvenile suspects, offenders, victims, or witnesses must be redacted pursuant to section 58.007(j)(1) of the Family Code. See id. § 58.007(j)(1). Therefore, the city must withhold the information you have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007(j)(1). The remaining information must be released to the requestor pursuant to section 58.007(e) of the Family Code. (3) 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, toll free at (888) 672-6787. Sincerely, Tamara H. Holland Assistant Attorney General Open Records Division THH/jb
Ref: ID# 376924 Enc. Submitted documents c: Requestor (w/o enclosures)
1. See Open Records Letter Nos. 2006-14726 (2006) and 2007-00198 (2007); see also Gov't Code
§ 552.301(a); Open Records Decision No. 673 at 7-8 (2001).
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.
We note that because the requestor has a special right of access to this information in this instance,
the city must again seek a decision from this office if it receives another request for the same information from
another requestor. POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |