June 8, 2012

Mr. Gregory A. Alicie

Open Records Specialist

Baytown Police Department

3200 North Main Street

Baytown, Texas 77521

OR2012-08880

Dear Mr. Alicie:

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# 456009.

The Baytown Police Department (the "department") received a request for a specified report. We understand you will redact partial social security numbers under section 552.147(b) of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ You claim that portions of the submitted information are excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. 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. Section 552.101 encompasses the constitutional right to privacy.  Constitutional privacy protects two kinds of interests. See Whalen v. Roe, 429 U.S. 589, 599-600 (1977); Open Records Decision Nos. 600 at 3-5 (1992), 478 at 4 (1987), 455 at 3-7 (1987). The first is the interest in independence in making certain important decisions relating to the "zones of privacy" pertaining to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child rearing and education the United States Supreme Court has recognized. See Fadjo v. Coon, 633 F.2d 1172 (5th Cir. 1981); ORD 455 at 3-7. The second constitutionally protected privacy interest is in freedom from public disclosure of certain personal matters. See Ramie v. City of Hedwig Village, Tex., 765 F.2d 490 (5th Cir. 1985); ORD 455 at 6-7. This aspect of constitutional privacy balances the individual's privacy interest against the public's interest in the information. See ORD 455 at 7. Constitutional privacy under section 552.101 is reserved for "the most intimate aspects of human affairs." Id. at 5 (internal quotations omitted) (quoting Ramie, 765 F.2d at 492).

In Open Records Decision No. 430 (1985), our office determined a list of inmate visitors is protected by constitutional privacy because people have a First Amendment right to correspond with inmates, which would be threatened if their names were released. See also Open Records Decision Nos. 428 (1985) (logs of certain mail sent or received by inmates protected by constitutional privacy), 185 (1978) (public's right to obtain inmate's correspondence list not sufficient to overcome First Amendment right of inmate's correspondents to maintain communication with inmate free of threat of public exposure). Upon review, we find the department must withhold the information we have marked under section 552.101 in conjunction with constitutional privacy. However, the remaining information you have marked is not identifying information. As such, we find you have failed to demonstrate how this information falls within the zones of privacy or implicates an individual's privacy interests for purposes of constitutional privacy. Therefore, the department may not withhold any of the remaining information you have marked under section 552.101 on the basis of constitutional privacy. As you raise no further exceptions to disclosure, the department must release the remaining information. ⁽²⁾

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,

Lindsay E. Hale

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

LEH/ag

Ref: ID# 456009

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Section 552.147(b) of the Government Code authorizes a governmental body to redact a living person's social security number from public release without the necessity of requesting a decision from this office under the Act. Gov't Code § 552.147(b).

2. We note the requestor has a right of access under section 552.023 of the Government Code to some of the information being released. 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); Open Records Decision No. 481 at 4 (1987) (privacy theories not implicated when individual asks governmental body to provide him with information concerning himself). Because such information is confidential with respect to the general public, if the department receives another request for this information from an individual other than this requestor, the department must again seek a ruling from this office.

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