April 11, 2011

Mr. Daniel Bradford

Assistant County Attorney

Travis County Attorney's Office

P.O. Box 1748

Austin, Texas 78767

OR2011-05020

Dear Mr. Bradford:

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# 418625.

The Travis County Sheriff's Office (the "sheriff") received a request for information pertaining six specified incident reports. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101 and 552.108 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted information. ⁽¹⁾

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. This section encompasses information protected by other statutes. The relevant language of section 58.007(c) of the Family Code reads 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.

Fam. Code § 58.007(c); see id. § 51.03(a)-(b) (defining "delinquent conduct" and "conduct indicating need for supervision" for purposes of title 3 of Family Code). Section 58.007(c) is applicable to records of juvenile conduct that occurred on or after September 1, 1997. The juvenile must have been at least 10 years old and less than 17 years of age when the conduct occurred. See id. § 51.02(2) (defining "child" for purposes of title 3 of Family Code). Upon review, we agree report no. 02-34626 consists of law enforcement records involving juvenile suspects. It does not appear any of the exceptions in section 58.007 apply; therefore, report no. 02-34626 is confidential pursuant to section 58.007(c) of the Family Code. The sheriff must withhold report no.02-34626 in its entirety from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007 of the Family Code.

Section 552.108 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 release of report no. 10-9672 would interfere with a pending prosecution by the Travis County District Attorney's Office. Based on your representations, we conclude section 552.108(a)(1) is 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 present in active cases), writ ref'd. per curiam, 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. 1976).

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. See 531 S.W.2d at 186-88; Open Records Decision No. 127 (1976) (summarizing types of information deemed public by Houston Chronicle). The sheriff must release basic offense and arrest information, including detailed descriptions of the offenses, even if the information does not literally appear on the front page of an offense or arrest report. The sheriff may withhold the remaining information in report number 10-9672 under section 552.108(a)(1) of the Government Code.

In summary, the sheriff must withhold report no.02-34626 in its entirety from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007 of the Family Code. With the exception of basic information, the sheriff may withhold the report no. 10-9672 under section 552.108(a)(1) of the Government 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,

Paige Lay

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

PL/eeg

Ref: ID# 418625

Enc. Submitted documents

cc: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. To the extent information responsive to the remaining requested information existed on the date the sheriff received the request, we assume you have released it. If you have not released any such information, you must do so at this time. See id. §§ 552.301(a), .302; see also Open Records Decision No. 664 (2000) (if governmental body concludes that no exceptions apply to requested information, it must release information as soon as possible).

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