March 4, 2011

Mr. Mark G. Mann

Assistant City Attorney

City of Garland

P.O. Box 469002

Garland, Texas 75046-9002

OR2011-03137

Dear Mr. Mann:

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# 410889 (Garland GCA 10-0991).

The Garland Police Department (the "department") received a request for a report for a specified incident involving the requestor's client. You claim that portions of the submitted information are excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

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. You raise section 552.101 in conjunction with section 58.007 of the Family Code. Juvenile law enforcement records relating to conduct that occurred on or after September 1, 1997 are confidential under section 58.007(c) of the Family Code. We note that section 58.007 is inapplicable in this instance because the juvenile conduct at issue occurred in 1970. However, former section 51.14 of the Family Code is applicable to this information. Prior to its repeal by the Seventy-fourth Legislature, section 51.14(d) of the Family Code provided for the confidentiality of juvenile law enforcement records. Law enforcement records pertaining to conduct occurring before January 1, 1996, are governed by the former section 51.14(d), which was continued in effect for that purpose. See Act of May 27, 1995, 74th Leg., R.S., ch. 262, § 100, 1995 Tex. Gen. Laws 2517, 2591. Section 51.14 applies to records of a "child," which is defined as a person who is ten years of age or older and under seventeen years of age. See Fam. Code § 51.02(2). Former section 51.14 provided in relevant part as follows:

(d) Except as provided by Article 15.27, Code of Criminal Procedure, and except for files and records relating to a charge for which a child is transferred under Section 54.02 of this code to a criminal court for prosecution, the law-enforcement files and records are not open to public inspection nor may their contents be disclosed to the public, but inspection of the files and records is permitted by:

(1) a juvenile court having the child before it in any proceeding;

(2) an attorney for a party to the proceeding; and

(3) law-enforcement officers when necessary for the discharge of their official duties.

Id. § 51.14 (repealed 1995). The submitted information concerns juvenile delinquent conduct that occurred prior to January 1, 1996. See id. § 51.03 (defining "delinquent conduct"). The exceptions to former section 51.14(d) do not apply to the requestor. Accordingly, we conclude the department must withhold the submitted information in its entirety under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with former section 51.14 of the Family Code.

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,

Lindsay E. Hale

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

LEH/em

Ref: ID# 410889

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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