January 18, 2011

Mr. Kenneth W. Findley

Assistant Chief of Police

City of Deer Park

2911 Center Street

Deer Park, Texas 77536-4942

OR2011-00823

Re: Request for documents regarding a criminal mischief incident where there was vehicle damage at the given location, between 10/1/10 and 12/20/10 against the named individual, request # 124

Dear Mr. Findley:

The Office of the Attorney General has received your request for a ruling and assigned your request ID# 411441.

After reviewing your arguments and the submitted information, we have determined your request does not present a novel or complex issue. Thus, we are addressing your claims in a memorandum opinion. You claim the marked information may be withheld from the requestor pursuant to section 552.108(a)(1) of the Government Code. We have considered your arguments and the submitted information and have determined that in accordance with section 552.108(a)(1 you may withhold some of the marked information. However, you must release the basic information, including a detailed description of the offense, pursuant to section 552.108(c) of the Government Code. Further, you must withhold the marked Texas vehicle identification number under section 552.130 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾

For more information on the cited exception, as well as information on the rights and obligations of governmental bodies and requestors, please refer to open government information contained on the Office of the Attorney General website at www.oag.state.tx.us. You may also contact our Open Government Hotline at 1-877-OPENTEX.

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. This office 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 license plate number under section 552.130 of the Government Code, without the necessity of requesting an attorney general opinion. Although you have marked a Texas vehicle identification number to withhold pursuant to Open Records Decision No. 684, we note this decision does not permit an agency to withhold a Texas vehicle identification number without first requesting an attorney general decision.

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