January 13, 2012

Ms. Elizabeth L. White

Ross, Banks, May, Cron & Cavin, P.C.

2 Riverway Suite 700

Houston, Texas 77056-1918

OR2012-00722

Dear Ms. White:

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# 447211 (No. 1761).

The City of League City (the "city"), which you represent, received a request for a specified police report. You claim the requested information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101, 552.108, and 552.023 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the information you submitted.

Section 552.108(a)(2) of the Government Code excepts from disclosure "[i]nformation held by a law enforcement agency or prosecutor that deals with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime . . . if . . . it is information that deals with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime only in relation to an investigation that did not result in conviction or deferred adjudication[.]" Gov't Code § 552.108(a)(2). 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 the submitted information is related to a criminal investigation that concluded in a result other than conviction or deferred adjudication. Based on your representation, we conclude section 552.108(a)(2) is applicable in this instance.

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 offense and arrest information held to be public in Houston Chronicle. See 531 S.W.2d at 186-88. The city must release basic information, which includes an identification and description of the complainant and a detailed description of the offense, even if the information does not literally appear on the front page of an offense or arrest report. See Open Records Decision No. 127 (1976) (summarizing types of information deemed public by Houston Chronicle).

You contend some of the basic information is confidential under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy. 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, and encompasses common-law privacy, which protects information that is highly intimate or embarrassing, such that its release would be highly objectionable to a person of ordinary sensibilities, and of no legitimate public interest. See Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976). Common-law privacy encompasses the specific types of information held to be intimate or embarrassing in Industrial Foundation. See id. at 683 (information relating to sexual assault, pregnancy, mental or physical abuse in workplace, illegitimate children, psychiatric treatment of mental disorders, attempted suicide, and injuries to sexual organs). This office has determined other types of information also are private under section 552.101. See generally Open Records Decision No. 659 at 4-5 (1999) (summarizing information attorney general has held to be private). We note the public has a legitimate interest in knowing the general details of a crime. See generally Lowe v. Hearst Communications, Inc., 487 F.3d 246, 250 (5th Cir. 2007) (noting a "legitimate public interest in facts tending to support an allegation of criminal activity" (citing Cinel v. Connick, 15 F.3d 1338, 1345-46 (1994)); Houston Chronicle Publ'g Co. v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d at 186-187 (public has legitimate interest in details of crime and police efforts to combat crime in community); see also Open Records Decision No. 409 at 2 (1984) (identity of burglary victim not protected by common-law privacy). We therefore conclude the city may not withhold any of the information encompassed by section 552.108(c) under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy. Thus, the city must release basic information in accordance with section 552.108(c). The city may withhold the rest of the submitted information under section 552.108(a)(2) of the Government Code. As we are able to make these determinations, we need not address the other exception you claim.

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,

James W. Morris, III

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JWM/em

Ref: ID# 447211

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Although you also raise section 552.023 of the Government Code, we note that section is not an exception to disclosure under subchapter C of the Act. See Gov't Code § 552.023.

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