February 24, 2011

Ms. P. Armstrong

Assistant City Attorney

Criminal Law and Police Section

City of Dallas

1400 South Lamar

Dallas, Texas 75215

OR2011-02631

Dear Ms. Armstrong:

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# 409648 (DPD Request No. 2010-11103).

The Dallas Police Department (the "department") received a request for records pertaining to a specified incident. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽¹⁾

Section 552.101 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses information made confidential by other statutes. Section 58.007 of the Family Code provides for the confidentiality of juvenile law enforcement records related to delinquent conduct and conduct indicating a need for supervision that occurred on or after September 1, 1997. See Fam. Code § 51.03 (defining "delinquent conduct" and "conduct indicating a need for supervision"). Section 58.007 reads, in relevant part, as follows:

(c) Except as provided by Subsection (d), law enforcement records and files concerning a child and information stored, by electronic means or otherwise, concerning the child from which a record or file could be generated may not be disclosed to the public and shall be:

(1) if maintained on paper or microfilm, kept separate from adult files and records;

(2) if maintained electronically in the same computer system as records or files relating to adults, be accessible under controls that are separate and distinct from controls to access electronic data concerning adults; and

(3) maintained on a local basis only and not sent to a central state or federal depository, except as provided by Subchapters B, D, and E.

. . .

(e) Law enforcement records and files concerning a child may be inspected or copied by a juvenile justice agency as that term is defined by Section 58.101, a criminal justice agency as that term is defined by Section 411.082, Government Code, the child, and the child's parent or guardian.

. . .

(j) Before a child or a child's parent or guardian may inspect or copy a record or file concerning the child under Subsection (e), the custodian of the record or file shall redact:

(1) any personally identifiable information about a juvenile suspect, offender, victim, or witness who is not the child; and

(2) any information that is excepted from required disclosure under Chapter 552, Government Code, or other law.

Id. § 58.007(c), (e), (j). For purposes of section 58.007(c), "child" means a person who is ten years of age or older and under seventeen years of age. See id. § 51.02(2). Upon review, we agree that the submitted information involves juveniles engaged in conduct indicating a need for supervision occurring after September 1, 1997; therefore, the submitted information is subject to section 58.007. However, the requestor is the authorized representative of one of the juvenile offenders listed in the submitted information. Under section 58.007(e), the requestor has a right to inspect or copy law enforcement records pertaining to his client. See id. § 58.007(e). Section 58.007(j) provides, however, that any personally identifiable information concerning other juvenile suspects, offenders, victims, or witnesses must be redacted. See id. § 58.007(j)(1). We note that, for purposes of section 58.007(j), we conclude a juvenile witness is a person who is under eighteen years of age. Accordingly, the department must redact any personally identifiable information concerning other juvenile offenders or witnesses from the submitted recording under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007 of the Family Code. In addition, section 58.007(j)(2) states that information subject to any other exception to disclosure under the Act or other law must be redacted. Id. § 58.007(j)(2). We note the submitted recording contains Texas motor vehicle information subject to section 552.130 of the Government Code. ⁽²⁾ Accordingly, we will address the applicability of this exception to the remaining submitted information.

Section 552.130 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure information relating to a motor vehicle operator's license, driver's license, motor vehicle title, or registration issued by a Texas agency. Gov't Code § 552.130(a)(1), (2). The department must withhold the Texas motor vehicle record information in the submitted recording under section 552.130 of the Government Code.

In summary, the department must redact any personally identifiable information concerning juvenile offenders other than the requestor's client or juvenile witnesses from the submitted recording under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007 of the Family Code. The department must also withhold the Texas motor vehicle record information in the submitted recording under section 552.130 of the Government Code. The remaining information must be released. ⁽³⁾

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,

Nneka Kanu

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

NK/vb

Ref: ID# 409648

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. 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.

2. The Office of the Attorney General will raise a mandatory exception on behalf of a governmental body, but ordinarily will not raise other exceptions. See Open Records Decision Nos. 481 (1987), 480 (1987), 470 (1987).

3. Because the requestor has a right of access to some of the submitted information that would be confidential with respect to the general public, the department should request another decision if it receives a request for this same information from a different requestor. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301(a), .302.

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