June 22, 2011

Ms. Jessica Sangsvang

Assistant City Attorney

City of Fort Worth

1000 Throckmorton Street, 3^rd Floor

Fort Worth, Texas 76102

OR2011-08875

Dear Ms. Sangsvang:

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# 421308 (Fort Worth PIR# W007875).

The City of Fort Worth (the "city") received a request for incident report number 11-030957. You have redacted certain Texas motor vehicle record information under section 552.130 of the Government Code pursuant to the previous determination issued to the city in Open Records Letter No. 2006-14726 (2006). See Gov't Code § 552.301(a); Open Records Decision No. 673 at 7-8 (2001). You have also redacted a social security number pursuant to section 552.147 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ 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 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. This section encompasses section 261.201 of the Family Code, which provides as follows:

(a) Except as provided by Section 261.203, the following information is confidential, is not subject to public release under [the Act], and may be disclosed only for purposes consistent with this code and applicable federal or state law or under rules adopted by an investigating agency:

(1) a report of alleged or suspected abuse or neglect made under this chapter and the identity of the person making the report; and

(2) except as otherwise provided in this section, the files, reports, records, communications, audiotapes, videotapes, and working papers used or developed in an investigation under this chapter or in providing services as a result of an investigation.

Fam. Code § 261.201(a). You assert the submitted information is confidential under section 261.201. See id. § 261.001(1) (defining "abuse" for purposes of chapter 261 of the Family Code); see also id. § 101.003(a) (defining "child" for purposes of this section as person under 18 years of age who is not and has not been married or who has not had the disabilities of minority removed for general purposes). However, the submitted information consists of an information report with no criminal offense listed. We find you have failed to adequately demonstrate how the submitted information involves a report of alleged or suspected child abuse made under chapter 261 of the Family Code, or how this information was used or developed in an investigation under chapter 261. Accordingly, we conclude the city may not withhold any of the submitted information under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 261.201(a) of the Family Code. As you raise no further exceptions to disclosure, the submitted 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,

Vanessa Burgess

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

VB/dls

Ref: ID# 421308

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Section 552.147(b) of the Government Code authorizes a governmental body to redact a living person's social security number from public release without the necessity of requesting a decision from this office under the Act. Gov't Code § 552.147(b).

2. We note that the information being released contains the requestor's Texas driver's license information. Ordinarily, this information would be withheld under section 552.130 of the Government Code. Because section 552.130 protects personal privacy, the requestor's driver's license number may not be withheld in this instance. See Gov't Code § 552.023(a) (person or person's authorized representative has special right of access, beyond right of general public, to information held by governmental body that relates to the person and is protected from public disclosure by laws intended to protect that person's privacy interests); Open Records Decision No. 481 at 4 (1987) (privacy theories not implicated when individual asks governmental body to provide him with information concerning himself). We note that if the city receives a request for this information from a different requestor, it is authorized to this driver's license number under section 552.130, without the necessity of requesting an attorney general decision pursuant to Open Records Decision No. 684 (2009).

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