February 7, 2012

Ms. Linda Pemberton

Paralegal

City of Killeen

P.O. Box 1329

Killeen, Texas 76540-1329

OR2012-01862

Dear Ms. Pemberton:

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# 444706 (#W006828).

The Killeen Police Department (the "department") received a request for information pertaining to a specified arrest. 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 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 exception encompasses information made confidential by other statutes. Section 58.007 of the Family Code makes confidential juvenile law enforcement records relating to conduct that occurred on or after September 1, 1997. The relevant language of section 58.007(c) reads:

(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.

Fam. Code. § 58.007(c), (e). Section 58.007 is applicable to records that pertain to a juvenile as a suspect or offender, and not as a complainant, victim, witness, or other involved party. See id.; see also id. § 51.03 (defining "delinquent conduct" and "conduct indicating a need for supervision" for purposes of Fam. Code § 58.007). Furthermore, for purposes of section 58.007, "child" means a person who is ten years of age or older and under seventeen years of age. See id. § 51.02(2). The submitted incident report pertains to juvenile delinquent conduct that occurred after September 1, 1997. Therefore, the submitted incident report is generally confidential pursuant to section 58.007(c) of the Family Code, unless one of the exceptions to disclosure in section 58.007 applies.

We note, however, that the requestor is a detective with the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office (the "sheriff's office"). Section 58.007(e) gives a "criminal justice agency as . . . defined by Section 411.082, Government Code" a right of access to juvenile law enforcement records. Section 411.082 of the Government Code defines a "criminal justice agency" as including "a federal or state agency that is engaged in the administration of criminal justice under a statute or executive order and that allocates a substantial portion of its annual budget to the administration of criminal justice[.]" Gov't Code § 411.082(3)(A). Upon review, we determine that the sheriff's office is a criminal justice agency as defined by section 411.082. Thus, the sheriff's office has a right of access to the submitted information under section 58.007(e) of the Government Code. Although you assert this information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.108 of the Government Code, we note statutes governing the release of specific information prevail over the general exceptions to disclosure found in the Act. See Open Records Decision Nos. 613 at 4 (1993) (exceptions in Act cannot impinge on statutory right of access to information), 451 (1986) (specific statutory right of access provisions overcome general exceptions to disclosure under the Act). Thus, the department must release the submitted information to the requestor pursuant to section 58.007(e) of the Government Code. ⁽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,

Sean Nottingham

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

SN/agn

Ref: ID# 444706

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume the "representative sample" of information 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 those submitted to this office.

2. We note the requestor in this case has a special right of access under section 58.007(e) of the Family Code to the information being released. If the department receives another request for this same information from a different requestor, it must again seek a ruling from this office.

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