January 23, 2012

Mr. Thomas Bailey

Legal Services

VIA Metropolitan Transit

P.O. Box 12489

San Antonio, Texas 78212

OR2012-01070

Dear Mr. Bailey:

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# 444715.

VIA Metropolitan Transit ("VIA") received a request for specified audio and video recordings from specified time periods, specified information pertaining to six named individuals, and specified information relating to a particular employment position. You state VIA has released all of the responsive information except for the submitted video recordings. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ 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 exception encompasses information that other statutes make confidential. You raise section 552.101 in conjunction with section 418.182 of the Government Code, which was added to chapter 418 of the Government Code as part of the Texas Homeland Security Act (the "HSA"). Section 418.182 provides in part:

(a) [I]nformation, including access codes and passwords, in the possession of a governmental entity that relates to the specifications, operating procedures, or location of a security system used to protect public or private property from an act of terrorism or related criminal activity is confidential.

Id. § 418.182(a). The fact that information may generally be related to a risk or vulnerability assessment, critical infrastructure, or a security system does not make the information per se confidential under the HSA. See Open Records Decision No. 649 at 3 (1996) (language of confidentiality provision controls scope of its protection). As with any exception to disclosure, a governmental body asserting one of the confidentiality provisions of the HSA must adequately explain how the responsive information falls within the scope of the provision. See Gov't Code § 552.301(e)(1)(A) (governmental body must explain how claimed exception to disclosure applies).

You state the submitted information is related to VIA's security system, which is overseen by VIA's police department. You represent this security system is used to protect public property from an act of terrorism or related criminal activity. You state release of the submitted information would provide technical and strategic information for a terrorist attack regarding potential blind spots and the schedules of employees, including security personnel and executives, that could be used to target VIA. Based on your representations and our review of the submitted information, we determine this information relates to the specifications, operating procedures, or location of a security system used to protect public property from an act of terrorism or related criminal activity. See Tex. Dep't of Pub. Safety v. Abbott, 310 S.W.3d 670 (Tex. App.-- Austin 2010, no pet.) (case construing section 418.182 of the HSA, which ruled the recorded images necessarily relate to the specifications of the security system that recorded them). Accordingly, VIA must withhold the submitted information under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 418.182(a) 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,

Kenneth Leland Conyer

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

KLC/agn

Ref: ID# 444715

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Although you also raise section 552.108 of the Government Code as an exception to disclosure, you have provide no arguments explaining how this exception is applicable to the submitted information. Therefore, we assume you no longer assert section 552.108 as an exception to disclosure. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301, .302.

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