January 11, 2010

Deputy Danie Huffman

Parker County Sheriff's Office

129 Hogle Street

Weatherford, Texas 76086

OR2010-00478

Dear Deputy Huffman:

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# 366695 (Open records request 2008-02139).

The Parker County Sheriff's Office (the "sheriff") received a request for the following information: (1) all information related to calls made to a specified property within the last six years; (2) information pertaining to a specified incident; (3) all citations issued to a specified business; and (4) information relating to any violations relating to a specified property or its occupants. You state you have released most of the requested information. You claim 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 the Medical Practice Act (the "MPA"), subtitle B of title 3 of the Occupations Code. See Occ. Code § 151.001. Section 159.002 of the MPA provides in pertinent part:

(b) A record of the identity, diagnosis, evaluation, or treatment of a patient by a physician that is created or maintained by a physician is confidential and privileged and may not be disclosed except as provided by this chapter.

(c) A person who receives information from a confidential communication or record as described by this chapter, other than a person listed in Section 159.004 who is acting on the patient's behalf, may not disclose the information except to the extent that disclosure is consistent with the authorized purposes for which the information was first obtained.

Occ. Code § 159.002(b), (c). This office has concluded that the protection afforded by section 159.002 extends only to records created by either a physician or someone under the supervision of a physician. See Open Records Decision Nos. 487 (1987), 370 (1983), 343 (1982). We understand you to assert that the submitted evidence release form is a confidential medical record. However, you do not explain, nor does it appear, that the evidence release form at issue was completed as part of any evaluation or treatment of an individual by a doctor or someone under the supervision of a doctor. Therefore, the sheriff may not withhold any portion of the submitted information under section 552.101 in conjunction with the MPA

We note some of the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.130 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ Section 552.130 of the Government Code provides that information relating to a motor vehicle operator's license, driver's license, motor vehicle title, or registration issued by a Texas agency is excepted from public release. Gov't Code § 552.130(a)(1), (2). The sheriff must withhold the Texas driver's license numbers we have marked under section 552.130 of the Government Code. ⁽²⁾ As you claim no further exceptions to the disclosure of the submitted information, the remaining information must be released to the requestor. ⁽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,

Amy L.S. Shipp

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

ALS/rl

Ref: ID# 366695

Enc. Submitted documents

cc: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. The Office of the Attorney General will raise a mandatory exception on behalf of a governmental body, but ordinarily will not raise other exceptions. Open Records Decision Nos. 481 (1987), 480 (1987), 470 (1987).

2. We note this office recently issued Open Record Decision No. 684 (2009), a previous determination to all governmental bodies authorizing them to withhold ten categories of information, including Texas driver's license numbers under section 552.130 of the Government Code, without the necessity of requesting an attorney general decision.

3. We note that the submitted information contains a social security number. 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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