September 24, 2012

Ms. Evelyn Njuguna

Houston Police Department Staff Attorney

City of Houston Police Department

1200 Travis

Houston, Texas 77002-6000

OR2012-15192

Dear Ms. Njuguna:

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# 465809 (OR No. 12-4065).

The Houston Police Department (the "department") received a request for incident report number 046824103K. You state you will release some of the requested information to the requestor. You claim that the submitted information is excepted from disclosure under section 552.108 of the Government Code. We have considered the exception you claim and reviewed the submitted information.

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). Section 552.108(a)(2) is applicable only if the information at issue relates to a concluded criminal case that did not result in a conviction or deferred adjudication. A governmental body that claims an exception to disclosure under section 552.108 must reasonably explain how and why this exception is applicable to the information the governmental body seeks to withhold. See id. § 552.301(e)(1)(A). You state incident report number 046824103K concerns a concluded criminal investigation that did not result in conviction or deferred adjudication. Based on this representation and our review, we conclude section 552.108(a)(2) is applicable to incident report number 046824103K.

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). Basic information refers to the information held to be public in Houston Chronicle Publ'g Co. v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d 177 (Tex. Civ. App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1975), writ ref'd n.r.e. per curiam, 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. 1976). Thus, with the exception of basic information, the department may withhold incident report number 046824103 under section 552.108(a)(2). The basic information must be released. ⁽¹⁾

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,

Vanessa Burgess

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

VB/akg

Ref: ID# 465809

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. We note some of the information being released contains confidential information to which the requestor has a right of access. See Gov't Code § 552.023; Open Records Decision No. 481 at 4 (1987) (governmental body may not deny access to person to whom information relates or person's authorized representative on grounds that information is considered confidential by privacy principles). Thus, if the department receives another request for this particular information from a different requestor, then the department should again seek a decision from this office.

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