January 17, 2012

Mr. Joseph J. Gorfida

Assistant City Attorney

City of Richardson

P.O. Box 831078

Richardson, Texas 75083-1078

OR2012-00764

Dear Mr. Gorfida:

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# 447321 (File No. 11-923).

The Richardson Police Department (the "department") received a request for information related to a specified incident number. You state some of the requested information has been released. You claim the rest of the requested 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 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 indicate the information at issue is related to a concluded case that did not result in a conviction or a deferred adjudication. Based on your representation, we conclude section 552.108(a)(2) is generally applicable to the information at issue.

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 information held to be public in Houston Chronicle. See 531 S.W.2d at 186-88. Basic information includes an identification and description of the complainant and a detailed description of the offense. See Open Records Decision No. 127 (1976) (summarizing types of information deemed public by Houston Chronicle). In this instance, you contend some of the information at issue is protected by common-law privacy under section 552.101 of the Government Code. 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. This exception 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 conclude the department must withhold the information you have marked and the additional information we have marked under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy. Otherwise, the department must release basic information in accordance with section 552.108(c). The department may withhold the rest of the information at issue under section 552.108(a)(2) of the Government Code.

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# 447321

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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