November 8, 2010

Ms. Jessica Sangsvang

Assistant City Attorney

City of Fort Worth

1000 Throckmorton Street, Third Floor

Fort Worth, Texas 76102

OR2010-16870

Dear Ms. Sangsvang:

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# 403809 (PIR No. W004138).

The City of Fort Worth (the "city") received a request for incident report number 06-40777. You state you have redacted 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 have redacted social security numbers pursuant to section 552.147 of the Government Code. ⁽²⁾ You claim 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 that other statutes make confidential, 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 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). Section 58.007 provides in pertinent part 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). Upon review, we find the submitted information involves juvenile conduct indicating a need of supervision occurring after September 1, 1997; therefore, the submitted information is subject to section 58.007. However, the requestor is the offender listed in the report. Therefore, the requestor has a right to inspect law enforcement records concerning herself under section 58.007(e). See 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). Accordingly, the city must withhold the information you have highlighted in yellow under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007(j)(1) of the Family Code. 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,

Cindy Nettles

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

CN/dls

Ref: ID# 403809

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

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).

2. Section 552.147(b) of the Government Code authorizes a government 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.

3. We note that the requestor has a special right of access to the information being released in this instance. Because such information is confidential with respect to the general public, if the city receives another request for this information from a different requestor, the city must again seek a ruling from this office.

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