October 29, 2012

Mr. Ronald J. Bounds

Assistant City Attorney

City of Corpus Christi

P.O. Box 9277

Corpus Christi, Texas 78469-9277

OR2012-17224

Dear Mr. Bounds:

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# 469706 (Corpus Christi Police Department File No. ECar1).

The Corpus Christi Police Department (the "department") received a request for information pertaining to a specified incident, including an injury report, reports for two 9-1-1 calls for service, and audio recordings for the 9-1-1 calls. You state the department has released some information to the requestor. 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 public disclosure "information considered to be confidential by law, either constitutional, statutory, or by judicial decision." Gov't Code § 552.101. This section encompasses common-law privacy, which protects information that (1) contains highly intimate or embarrassing facts, the publication of which would be highly objectionable to a reasonable person, and (2) is not of legitimate concern to the public. See Indus. Found. v. Tex. Indus. Accident Bd., 540 S.W.2d 668, 685 (Tex. 1976). To demonstrate the applicability of common-law privacy, both prongs of this test must be satisfied. See id. at 681-82. The types of information considered intimate or embarrassing by the Texas Supreme Court in Industrial Foundation included information relating to sexual assault, pregnancy, mental or physical abuse in the workplace, illegitimate children, psychiatric treatment of mental disorders, attempted suicide, and injuries to sexual organs. See id. at 683. In addition, this office has found that some kinds of medical information or information indicating disabilities or specific illnesses to be excepted from required public disclosure under common-law privacy. See Open Records Decision Nos. 470 (1997) (illness from severe emotional and job-related stress), 455 (1987) (prescription drugs, illnesses, operations, and physical handicaps). Upon review, we find portions of the submitted information are highly intimate or embarrassing and of no legitimate public interest. Thus, the department must generally withhold the information it has marked, and the additional information we have marked, pursuant to section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy.

However, we note the requestor may be acting as the authorized representative of the individual whose privacy interests are at issue, and may have a right of access to information pertaining to that individual that would otherwise be confidential under common-law privacy. See Gov't Code § 552.023(a) ("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 that is protected from public disclosure by laws intended to protect that person's privacy interests"); Open Records Decision No. 481 at 4 (1987) (privacy theories not implicated when individual or authorized representative requests information concerning that individual). Because we are unable to determine whether the requestor is the authorized representative of the individual whose privacy interests are at issue, we must rule conditionally. Accordingly, if the requestor is not acting as the authorized representative of the individual whose privacy interests are at issue, the department must withhold the marked information under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with common-law privacy. If the requestor is acting as the authorized representative of the individual whose privacy interests are at issue, the department may not withhold the marked information from this requestor. As no other exceptions to disclosure are raised, the remaining information must released.

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,

Cynthia G. Tynan

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

CGT/akg

Ref: ID# 469706

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

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