January 11, 2011

Ms. Cherl K. Byles

Assistant City Attorney

City of Fort Worth

1000 Throckmorton Street

Fort Worth, Texas 76102

OR2011-00564

Dear Ms. Byles:

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# 405623 (No. W004118).

The City of Fort Worth (the "city") received a request for information related to (1) requests for travel by city officials to previous Super Bowl locations and (2) public safety policies for Super Bowl activities. ⁽¹⁾ You state the city is releasing some of the requested information, but claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101 and 552.108 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽²⁾

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." This section encompasses information protected by other statutes. As part of the Texas Homeland Security Act, sections 418.176 through 418.182 were added to chapter 418 of the Government Code. These provisions make certain information related to terrorism confidential. Section 418.176(a) provides the following:

Information is confidential if the information is collected, assembled, or maintained by or for a governmental entity for the purpose of preventing, detecting, responding to, or investigating an act of terrorism or related criminal activity and:

(1) relates to staffing requirements of an emergency response provider, including law enforcement agency, a fire-fighting agency, or an emergency services agency;

(2) relates to a tactical plan of the provider; or

(3) consists of a list or compilation of pager or telephone numbers, including mobile and cellular telephone numbers, of the provider.

Gov't Code § 418.176(a). The submitted information contains portions of weekly Super Bowl countdown newsletters for the city's police department. It also contains a memo discussing the police department's discretionary leave and training policies during Super Bowl week and the police department's off-duty employment policy during Super Bowl week. You assert this information is confidential under various provisions of the Texas Homeland Security Act because "[t]he requested records are held by the department to prevent, detect, respond to and investigate acts of terrorism or related criminal activity and their release to the public would compromise law enforcement purposes." Upon review, we find the city has established the submitted information relates to staffing requirements and tactical plans of a law enforcement agency maintained by or for a governmental entity for the purpose of preventing, detecting, or responding to an act of terrorism or related criminal activity. See id. § 418.176(a)(1)-(2). Accordingly, the submitted information is confidential under section 418.176 of the Government Code, and the city must withhold it under section 552.101 of the Government 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,

James L. Coggeshall

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JLC/tf

Ref: ID# 405623

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. The requestor clarified his initial request for information in correspondence received by the city on October 18, 2010. See Gov't Code § 552.222(b); see also City of Dallas v. Abbott, 304 S.W.3d 380, 387 (Tex. 2010) (if governmental entity, acting in good faith, requests clarification of unclear or over-broad request, ten-day period to request attorney general ruling is measured from date request is clarified).

2. We assume 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 those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this office.

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