May 2, 2011

Ms. Linda Rhodes

City Secretary

City of Lake Worth

3805 Adam Grubb

Lake Worth, Texas 76135-3509

OR2011-05983

Dear Ms. Rhodes:

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# 417748.

The Lake Worth Police Department (the "department") received a request for a specified incident report. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ 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. Section 552.101 encompasses information other statutes make confidential, such as section 58.007 of the Family Code, which provides in pertinent 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 date 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.

Fam. Code §58.007(c), (e), (j). Law enforcement records relating to juvenile conduct, whether delinquent conduct or conduct in need of supervision, that occurred on or after September 1, 1997, are confidential under section 58.007 of the Family Code. See id. § 51.03 (defining "delinquent conduct" and "conduct indicating a need for supervision"). 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 find that the submitted information involves several juvenile offenders engaged in delinquent conduct occurring after September 1, 1997; therefore, the submitted information is subject to section 58.007. In this instance, the requestor is one of the juvenile offenders listed in the report. Thus, the requestor has a right of access to the submitted information under section 58.007(e). See id. § 58.007(e). Section 58.007(j)(1) provides, however, that any personally identifiable information concerning another juvenile suspect, offender, victim, or witness must be redacted. See id. § 58.007(j)(1). Accordingly, the department must withhold the information we have marked relating to the remaining juvenile offenders under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 58.007(j)(1) of the Family Code. The remaining information must be released. ⁽²⁾

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,

Kirsten Brew

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

KB/sdk

Ref: ID# 417748

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note the requestor, in the request for information, agreed to exclude the Texas driver's license numbers. Thus, any of this information in the submitted documents is not responsive to the instant request, and it need not be released. Accordingly, we do not address your argument under section 552.130 of the Government Code.

2. We note that the requestor has a special right of access to the information being released in this instance. Because such information is confidential with respect to the general public, if the department receives another request for this information from a different requestor, the department must again seek a ruling from this office.

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