August 22, 2012

Ms. Traci S. Briggs

Deputy City Attorney

City of Killeen

P.O. Box 1329

Killeen, Texas 76540-1329

OR2012-13240

Dear Ms. Briggs:

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# 463150 (ID# W008212).

The City of Killeen (the "city") received a request for eighteen categories of information pertaining to a named police officer. You state the city has released some of the requested information. You claim the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.101 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted representative sample of information. ⁽¹⁾

Initially, we note the requestor has expressly excluded home addresses, telephone numbers, social security numbers, birth dates, drivers' license numbers, and licence plate information from her request. Accordingly, any such information is not responsive to the request for information. This ruling does not address the public availability of non-responsive information, nor is the city required to release non-responsive information in response to this request.

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 section excepts from disclosure information deemed confidential by statute, such as section 143.089 of the Local Government Code. You state the city is a civil service city pursuant to chapter 143 of the Local Government Code. Section 143.089 provides for the existence of two different types of personnel files relating to a police officer: a file that must be maintained by the civil service director as part of the officer's civil service file, and an internal file that the police department may maintain for its own use. See Local Gov't Code § 143.089(a), (g). The officer's civil service file must contain certain specified items, including commendations, periodic evaluations by the police officer's supervisor, and documents relating to any misconduct in which the department took disciplinary action against the officer under chapter 143. Id. § 143.089(a)(1)-(3). Chapter 143 prescribes the following types of disciplinary actions: removal, suspension, demotion, and uncompensated duty. Id. §§ 143.051-.055; see Attorney General Opinion JC-0257 (2000) (written reprimand is not disciplinary action for purposes of Local Gov't Code chapter 143). In cases in which a police department investigates a police officer's misconduct and takes disciplinary action against an officer, it is required by section 143.089(a)(2) to place all investigatory records relating to the investigation and disciplinary action, including background documents such as complaints, witness statements, and documents of like nature from individuals who were not in a supervisory capacity, in the police officer's civil service file maintained under section 143.089(a). See Abbott v. Corpus Christi, 109 S.W.3d 113, 122 (Tex. App.--Austin 2003, no pet.). All investigatory materials in a case resulting in disciplinary action are "from the employing department" when they are held by or in possession of the department because of its investigation into a police officer's misconduct, and the department must forward them to the civil service commission for placement in the civil service personnel file. Id. Such records are subject to release under the Act. See Local Gov't Code § 143.089(f); Open Records Decision No. 562 at 6 (1990). However, information that reasonably relates to a police officer's employment relationship with the department and that is maintained in a police department's internal file pursuant to section 143.089(g) is confidential and must not be released. City of San Antonio v. Texas Attorney Gen., 851 S.W.2d 946, 949 (Tex. App.--Austin 1993, writ denied).

You inform us that Exhibit D, as well as the information you have indicated within Exhibit E, is maintained in the city's police department's internal file for the named police officer pursuant to section 143.089(g). Upon review, we find the city must withhold Exhibit D under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with section 143.089(g) of the Local Government Code. However, you acknowledge the information you have indicated in Exhibit E is contained within performance evaluations that you inform us are maintained in the named police officer's civil service file under section 143.089(a). See Local Gov't Code § 143.089(a)(3). Thus, the information you have indicated in Exhibit E may not be withheld under section 552.101 in conjunction with section 143.089(g). As no other exceptions to disclosure are raised for Exhibit E, the city must release it.

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/bhf

Ref: ID# 463150

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We assume the "representative sample" of information submitted to this office is truly representative of the requested records as a whole. See Open Records Decision Nos. 499 (1988), 497 (1988). This open records letter does not reach, and therefore does not authorize the withholding of, any other requested records to the extent those records contain substantially different types of information than those submitted to this office.

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