January 21, 2011

Mr. Kenneth Findley

Assistant Chief of Police

Deer Park Police Department

2911 Center Street

Deer Park, Texas 77536-4942

OR2011-01020

Dear Mr. Findley:

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# 409587 (Request #5 - December 2010).

The Deer Park Police Department (the "department") received a request for information pertaining to the issuance of a citation to the requestor, including citations and in-car video. You state the department has made some of the requested information available to the requestor, but claim the some of the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.130 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Section 552.130 of the Government Code provides information relating to a motor vehicle operator's license, driver's license, motor vehicle title, or registration issued by a Texas agency is excepted from public release. Gov't Code § 552.130(a)(1), (2). The department must withhold the Texas motor vehicle record information you have marked, as well as the information we have marked in the submitted citation, under section 552.130. ⁽¹⁾ The submitted video recording also contains Texas motor vehicle record information to which the requestor does not have a right of access under section 552.023 of the Government Code. See id. § 552.023(a) ("a person or a person's authorized representative has a special right of access, beyond the right of the general public, to information held by a governmental body that relates to the person and that is protected from public disclosure by laws intended to protect that person's privacy interests"); Open Records Decision No. 481 at 4 (1987) (privacy theories not implicated when individuals request information concerning themselves). You inform us the department does not have the technology to redact this information from the video. Based on your representation that the department is unable to redact the portions of the submitted video recording that reveal Texas motor vehicle record information, we agree the department must withhold this recording in its entirety pursuant to section 552.130. ⁽²⁾ See Open Records Decision No. 364 (1983). The department must release the remaining information.

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/vb

Ref: ID# 409587

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note 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 driver's license number, a Texas license plate number, and the portion of any video depicting a discernible Texas license plate number under section 552.130 of the Government Code, without the necessity of requesting an attorney general opinion.

2. We note 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 driver's license number, a Texas license plate number, and the portion of any video depicting a discernible Texas license plate number under section 552.130 of the Government Code, without the necessity of requesting an attorney general opinion.

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