February 18, 2011

Mr. Todd C. Simons

Assistant City Attorney

City of San Angelo

P.O. Box 1751

San Angelo, Texas 76902

OR2011-02539

Dear Mr. Simons:

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# 413776.

The San Angelo Police Department (the "department") received a request for a specified report. 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. We also have considered the comments we received from the requestor. ⁽¹⁾

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 . . . release of the information would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime[.]" Gov't Code § 552.108(a)(1). 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 submitted information is related to a pending criminal case. Based on your representations, we conclude section 552.108(a)(1) is generally applicable in this instance. See Houston Chronicle Publ'g Co. v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d 177 (Tex. Civ. App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1975) (court delineates law enforcement interests that are present in active cases), writ ref'd n.r.e. per curiam, 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. 1976) (court delineates law enforcement interests that are present in active cases).

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. See 531 S.W.2d at 186-88; Open Records Decision No. 127 (1976) (summarizing types of information deemed public by Houston Chronicle). Basic information includes the identity of the complainant and a detailed description of the offense. We note the submitted information involves an alleged sexual offense. Ordinarily, the department would be required to withhold the identity of the victim of the offense under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy. ⁽²⁾ See Gov't Code § 552.101; Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976); Open Records Decision Nos. 393 (1983), 339 (1982). In this instance, however, the requestor identifies himself as an attorney for an authorized representative of the crime victim. As such, the requestor has a right of access to the victim's private information under section 552.023 of the Government Code. See Gov't Code § 552.023; Open Records Decision No. 481 at 4 (1987) (privacy theories not implicated when individual requests information concerning herself). ⁽³⁾ Therefore, the department must release basic information in accordance with section 552.108(c). See ORD 127 at 3-4. The department may withhold the rest of the submitted information under section 552.108(a)(1) of the Government Code. ⁽⁴⁾

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# 413776

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. See Gov't Code § 552.304 (any person may submit written comments stating why information at issue in request for attorney general decision should or should not be released).

2. Section 552.101 excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101.

3. Section 552.023 provides in part that "[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." Gov't Code § 552.023(a).

4. Because this requestor has a right of access to information the department would be required to withhold from the general public, the department should request another decision if it receives another request for this same information from a different requestor. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301(a), .302.

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