May 15, 2012

Ms. Sol M. Cortez

Assistant City Attorney

City of El Paso

2 Civic Center Plaza, Ninth Floor

El Paso, Texas 79901

OR2012-07140

Dear Ms. Cortez:

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# 453772.

The El Paso Police Department (the "department") received a request for the breathalyzer result from a specified incident. You state you have released some information to the requestor. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.108 and 552.130 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

Initially, we note the requestor is only seeking the results of a breathalyzer test, and therefore, the remainder of the submitted information is not responsive to the request. This ruling does not address the public availability of non-responsive information, and the department is not required to release non-responsive information in response to this request. ⁽¹⁾

Next, we note the responsive information consists of the result of an analysis of a breath specimen. Section 724.018 of the Transportation Code provides that on request of the person who has given a specimen at the request of a peace officer, full information concerning the analysis of the specimen must be made available to that person or the person's attorney. Transp. Code § 724.018. Here, the requestor is the individual who submitted the specimen at the request of a peace officer. Although you seek to withhold the information at issue under section 552.108 of the Government Code, a specific statutory right of access provision prevails over general exceptions to disclosure under the Act. See Open Records Decision No. 451 at 4 (1986) (specific statutory right of access provisions overcome general exceptions to disclosure under statutory predecessor to Act). Therefore, the department must release the results of the analysis of the blood specimen at issue, which we have marked, to this requestor pursuant to section 724.018 of the Transportation 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,

Kathryn R. Mattingly

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

KRM/dls

Ref: ID# 453772

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. As our ruling is dispositive, we need not address your arguments against disclosure of this information.

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