January 3, 2012

Ms. Tiffany Bull

Assistant City Attorney

Arlington Police Department

P.O. Box 1065

Arlington, Texas 76004-1065

OR2012-00020

Dear Ms. Bull:

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# 441085 (Ref. No. 5591-101311).

The Arlington Police Department (the "department") received a request for the requestor's statement and any other information pertaining to a specified incident involving the requestor. You claim 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.

You assert the submitted incident report number 972160470 and related records are confidential under section 58.007 of the Family Code. 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 made confidential by other statutes, such as 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. See Fam. Code § 58.007(c). Juvenile law enforcement records pertaining to conduct occurring before January 1, 1996, are generally confidential under former section 51.14(d) of the Family Code. Act of May 27, 1995, 74th Leg., R.S., ch. 262, § 100,1995 Tex. Gen. Laws 2517, 2591 (Vernon). For purposes of former section 51.14(d) or the current section 58.007, a juvenile is a person who is ten years of age or older and under seventeen years of age. See Fam. Code § 51.02(2).

This office has concluded section 58.007 of the Family Code, as enacted by the Seventy-fourth Legislature, does not make confidential juvenile law enforcement records relating to conduct that occurred on or after January 1, 1996. Open Records Decision No. 644 (1996).  The Seventy-fifth Legislature, however, amended section 58.007 to once again make juvenile law enforcement records confidential effective September 1, 1997. Act of June 2, 1997, 75th Leg., R.S., ch. 1086, 1997 Tex. Sess. Law Serv. 4179, 4187 (Vernon). However, the legislature chose not to make this most recent amendment retroactive in application. Consequently, law enforcement records pertaining to juvenile conduct that occurred between January 1, 1996, and September 1, 1997, are not subject to the confidentiality provisions of either the former section 51.14(d) or the current section 58.007 of the Family Code. In this instance, although one of the suspects listed in the submitted incident report is thirteen years old, the report pertains to conduct that occurred in August 1997, and is, therefore, not confidential under either the former section 51.14(d) or the current section 58.007 of the Family Code. Consequently, the submitted information may not be withheld under section 552.101 of the Government Code on these bases. As you have not claimed any other exceptions to disclosure, the department must release the remaining information. ⁽¹⁾

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,

Leah B. Wingerson

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

LBW/dls

Ref: ID# 441085

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note the information to be released includes the requestor's driver's license number, which is confidential under section 552.130 of the Government Code. Because this provision protects a person's privacy, the requestor has a right of access to her own private information under section 552.023(a) of the Government Code. 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 person and is protected from public disclosure by laws intended to protect person's privacy interests). If the department receives another request for this information from an individual other than this requestor, the department should again seek our decision.

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