January 22, 2010

Ms. Erin K. Stewart

Assistant General Counsel

Office of General Counsel

University of North Texas

1155 Union Circle #310907

Denton, Texas 76203-5017

OR2010-01034

Dear Ms. Stewart:

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# 368567 (UNT PIR No. 10-033).

The University of North Texas Police Department (the "department") received a request for all reports, narratives, e-mails, video or audio recordings, and other documents relating to a specified case. You state you will release some information to the requestor. You claim that portions of the remaining information are excepted from disclosure under section 552.130 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽¹⁾

You seek to withhold portions of the submitted documents under section 552.130 of the Government Code, which excepts from disclosure information that relates to a driver's license or motor vehicle title or registration issued by a Texas agency. Gov't Code § 552.130. You further state the submitted video recording includes images and audio that contains Texas driver's license and motor vehicle information. Upon review, we agree the department must withhold the Texas motor vehicle record information you have marked in the submitted documents and the Texas motor vehicle record information contained in the submitted video recording under section 552.130 of the Government Code. ⁽²⁾ If the department lacks the technical capability to redact the information in the submitted video recording subject to section 552.130, the department must withhold the video recording in its entirety. The remaining information must be released. ⁽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,

Mack T. Harrison

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

MTH/rl

Ref: ID# 368567

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume that the "representative sample" of records submitted to this office is truly representative of the requested records as a whole. See Open Records Decision Nos. 499 (1988), 497 (1988). This open records letter does not reach, and therefore does not authorize the withholding of, any other requested records to the extent that those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

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

3. You have marked a social security number in the remaining information. 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.

POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US
An Equal Employment Opportunity Employer