January 27, 2011

Ms. Jessica C. Eales

Assistant City Attorney

City of Houston

P.O. B ox 368

Houston, Texas 77001-0368

OR2011-01464

Dear Ms. Eales:

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# 411459 (GC No. 18079).

The Houston Police Department (the "department") received a request for information relating to a fatal accident. You claim the requested information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.108 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the information you submitted. ⁽¹⁾

We note the submitted information includes a Texas Peace Officer's Crash Report completed pursuant to chapter 550 of the Transportation Code. See Transp. Code § 550.064 (officer's accident report). Section 550.065(b) of the Transportation Code states that except as provided by subsection (c), accident reports are privileged and confidential. ⁽²⁾ See id. § 550.065(b). Section 550.065(c)(4) provides for the release of an accident report to a person who provides two of the following three items of information: (1) the date of the accident; (2) the name of any person involved in the accident; and (3) the specific location of the accident. See id. § 550.065(c)(4). Under this provision, the Texas Department of Transportation or another governmental entity is required to release a copy of an accident report to a person who provides the agency with two or more of the items of information specified by the statute. Id. In this instance, the requestor has provided the department with two of the three specified items of information. As a general rule, the exceptions to disclosure found in the Act do not apply to information other statutes make public. See Open Records Decision Nos. 623 at 3 (1994), 525 at 3 (1989). Therefore, the crash report we have marked must be released to this requestor in its entirety pursuant to section 550.065(c)(4) of the Transportation Code.

Section 552.108 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "[i]nformation held by a law enforcement agency or prosecutor that deals with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime . . . if . . . it is information that deals with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime only in relation to an investigation that did not result in conviction or deferred adjudication.[.]" Gov't Code § 552.108(a)(2). A governmental body must reasonably explain how and why section 552.108 is applicable to the information at issue. See id. § 552.301(e)(1)(A); Ex parte Pruitt, 551 S.W.2d 706 (Tex. 1977). You state the rest of the submitted information is related to a concluded criminal investigation that did not result in a conviction or a deferred adjudication. Based on your representations, we conclude section 552.108(a)(2) is generally applicable to the remaining information.

We note section 552.108 does not except from disclosure "basic information about an arrested person, an arrest, or a crime." Gov't Code § 552.108(c). Section 552.108(c) refers to the basic front-page information held to be public in Houston Chronicle Publishing Co. v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d 177 (Tex. Civ. App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1975), writ ref'd n.r.e. per curiam, 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. 1976). See 531 S.W.2d at 186-88. The department must release basic information, including a detailed description of the offense, even if the information does not literally appear on the front page of an offense or arrest report. See Open Records Decision No. 127 at 3-4 (1976) (summarizing types of information deemed public by Houston Chronicle). The department may withhold the remaining information under section 552.108(a)(2).

In summary: (1) the crash report must be released in its entirety pursuant to section 550.065(c)(4) of the Transportation Code; and (2) the department may withhold the rest of the submitted information under section 552.108(a)(2) of the Government Code, except for the basic information that must be released under section 552.108(c).

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 W. Morris, III

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JWM/em

Ref: ID# 411459

Enc: Submitted information

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. This letter ruling assumes the submitted representative sample of information is truly representative of the requested information as a whole. This ruling neither reaches nor authorizes the department to withhold any information that is substantially different from the submitted information. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301(e)(1)(D), .302; Open Records Decision Nos. 499 at 6 (1988), 497 at 4 (1988).

2. Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from public disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This exception encompasses information other statutes make confidential.

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