October 4, 2012

Ms. Michelle L. Villarreal

Assistant City Attorney

City of Waco

P.O. Box 2570

Waco, Texas 76702-2570

OR2012-15801

Dear Ms. Villarreal:

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# 471488 (LGL-12-1458).

The Waco Police Department (the "department") received a request for a specified police report. You indicate the department has released some of the requested information. You claim other responsive information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.130 and 552.147 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the information you submitted. ⁽¹⁾

Section 552.130 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure information related to a motor vehicle operator's or driver's license or permit or a motor vehicle title or registration issued by an agency of this state or another state or country. See Gov't Code § 552.130(a)(1)-(2). You have marked the information the department seeks to withhold under section 552.130. We note this exception protects personal privacy. In this instance, the requestor is an insurer of the individual to whom some of the marked information pertains. As such, the requestor has a right of access to the insured person's driver's license and motor vehicle information under section 552.023 of the Government Code. See id. § 552.023(a); Open Records Decision No. 481 at 4 (1987) (privacy theories not implicated when individual requests information concerning himself). ⁽²⁾ Therefore, the driver's license and motor vehicle information related to the insured person we have marked may not be withheld under section 552.130 and must be released. The department must withhold the rest of the driver's license and motor vehicle information you have marked and the additional information we have marked under section 552.130 of the Government Code.

Section 552.147 of the Government Code states the "[t]he social security number of a living person is excepted from" required public disclosure under the Act. Gov't Code § 552.147(a). The department may withhold the social security number you have marked under section 552.147 of the Government Code. ⁽³⁾

In summary, the department (1) must release the insured person's driver's license and motor vehicle information we have marked pursuant to section 552.023 of the Government Code; (2) must withhold the remaining driver's license and motor vehicle information you have marked and the additional information we have marked under section 552.130 of the Government Code; and (3) may withhold the social security number you have marked under section 552.147 of the Government Code. The department must release the rest of the submitted information unless it has already done so.

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,

James W. Morris, III

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

JWM/bhf

Ref: ID# 471488

Enc: Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. This letter ruling assumes the submitted representative sample of information is truly representative of the requested information as a whole. This ruling neither reaches nor authorizes the department to withhold any information that is substantially different from the submitted information. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301(e)(1)(D), .302; Open Records Decision Nos. 499 at 6 (1988), 497 at 4 (1988).

2. Section 552.023 provides in part that "[a] person or a person's authorized representative has a special right of access, beyond the right of the general public, to information held by a governmental body that relates to the person and that is protected from public disclosure by laws intended to protect that person's privacy interests." Gov't Code § 552.023(a).

3. We note that 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.

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