February 10, 2010

Mr. Mack Reinwand

Assistant City Attorney

City of Arlington

Mail Stop 04-0200

P.O. Box 1065

Arlington, Texas 76004-1065

OR2010-02066

Dear Mr. Reinwand:

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# 369908 (Police Department Reference No. 2009-11-093).

The Arlington Police Department (the "department") received a request for information relating to a specified incident. You claim 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." Gov't Code § 552.101. Section 552.101 encompasses information protected by other statutes, including section 58.007 of the Family Code. The relevant language of section 58.007 provides:

(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.

Fam. Code § 58.007(c). Law enforcement records relating to juvenile conduct that occurred on or after September 1, 1997 are confidential under section 58.007. See id. § 51.03(a), (b) (defining "conduct indicating a need for supervision"); Open Records Decision No. 644 (1996). For purposes of section 58.007(c), "child" means a person who is ten years of age or older and under seventeen years of age at the time of the reported conduct. See id. § 51.02(2). Upon review, we agree that the submitted information involves allegations of juvenile conduct indicating a need for supervision that occurred on or after September 1, 1997. As such, this information constitutes a law enforcement record that is confidential pursuant to section 58.007(c). Accordingly, the department must withhold submitted information in its entirety under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007 of the Family Code.

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,

Pamela Wissemann

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

PFW/cc

Ref: ID# 369908

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Although we understand you to also raise section 552.108 of the Government Code for portions of the submitted information, you have provided no arguments in support of this exception and, accordingly, we do not address it. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301(1)(A)(e) (requiring governmental body to submit written comments by 15^th business day after date of receipt of written request for information stating reasons why claimed exceptions apply); .302.

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