January 3, 2011

Ms. J. Middlebrooks

Assistant City Attorney

Criminal Law and Police Section

City of Dallas

1400 South Lamar

Dallas, Texas 75215

OR2011-00037

Dear Ms. Middlebrooks:

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# 404690 (PIR 2010-9419).

The Dallas Police Department (the "department") received a request for all arrest reports pertaining to the requestor. You claim the submitted incident report 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. This section encompasses the doctrine of common-law privacy, which protects information that (1) contains highly intimate or embarrassing facts, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person, and (2) is not of legitimate concern to the public. Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976). The submitted incident report pertains to an alleged sexual assault. Generally, only information that either identifies or tends to identify a victim of sexual assault or other sex-related offense must be withheld under common-law privacy. See Open Records Decision Nos. 440 (1986), 393 (1983), 339 (1982). However, a governmental body is required to withhold all of the information at issue when the requestor knows the identity of the alleged sexual assault victim. See ORD 393. In this instance, you state the requestor knows the identity of the alleged sexual assault victim listed in the submitted report. Based on your representation and our review, we agree withholding only the victim's identity from the requestor would not preserve the victim's common-law right of privacy. Accordingly, the submitted incident report must be withheld in its entirety under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy.

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,

Leah B. Wingerson

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

LBW/dls

Ref: ID# 404690

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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