November 20, 2012

Ms. LeAnn M. Quinn

City Secretary

City of Cedar Park

450 Cypress Creek Road

Cedar Park, Texas 78613

OR2012-18720

Dear Ms. Quinn:

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# 475758 (Ref No. 13-067).

The City of Cedar Park (the "city") received a request for information pertaining to a specified incident. You state some of the requested information has been released. You inform us the city will withhold driver's license information pursuant to section 552.130(c) of the Government Code, a license plate number pursuant to the previous determination issued under section 552.130(a)(2) in Open Records Decision No. 684 (2009), and social security numbers pursuant to section 552.147(b) of the Government Code. ⁽¹⁾ You claim other responsive information is excepted from disclosure under sections 552.101, 552.108, and 552.130 of the Government Code. We have considered the exceptions you claim and reviewed the information you submitted.

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 exception encompasses information other statutes make confidential. Criminal history record information ("CHRI") obtained from the National Crime Information Center (the "NCIC") or the Texas Crime Information Center is confidential under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with federal and state law. CHRI means "information collected about a person by a criminal justice agency that consists of identifiable descriptions and notations of arrests, detentions, indictments, informations, and other formal criminal charges and their dispositions." Id. § 411.082(2). Federal law governs the dissemination of CHRI obtained from the NCIC network. Federal regulations prohibit the release to the general public of CHRI maintained in state and local CHRI systems. See 28 C.F.R. § 20.21(c)(1) ("Use of criminal history record information disseminated to noncriminal justice agencies shall be limited to the purpose for which it was given.") and (c)(2) ("No agency or individual shall confirm the existence or nonexistence of criminal history record information to any person or agency that would not be eligible to receive the information itself."). The federal regulations allow each state to follow its own individual law with respect to CHRI it generates. See ORD 565 at 10-12; see generally Gov't Code ch. 411 subch. F. Although sections 411.083(b)(1) and 411.089(a) of the Government Code authorize a criminal justice agency to obtain CHRI, a criminal justice agency may not release CHRI except to another criminal justice agency for a criminal justice purpose. See id. § 411.089(b). We agree the city must withhold the CHRI you have marked in Exhibit B under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with federal law and subchapter F of chapter 411 of the Government Code.

Section 552.108(a)(1) 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 . . . release of the information would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime[.]" Id. § 552.108(a)(1). A governmental body must reasonably explain how and why section 552.108 is applicable to the information at issue. See id. § 552.301(e)(1)(A); Ex parte Pruitt, 551 S.W.2d 706 (Tex. 1977). You state the information submitted as Exhibit C is related to a pending criminal prosecution. Based on your representation and our review, we conclude the city may withhold Exhibit C under section 552.108(a)(1) of the Government Code. See Houston Chronicle Publ'g Co. v. City of Houston, 531 S.W.2d 177 (Tex. Civ. App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1975) (court delineates law enforcement interests present in active cases), writ ref'd n.r.e. per curiam, 536 S.W.2d 559 (Tex. 1976).

Section 552.130 of the Government Code excepts from disclosure information related to 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)(2). We agree the city must withhold the remaining motor vehicle information you have marked in Exhibit B under section 552.130.

In summary, the city (1) must withhold the CHRI you have marked in Exhibit B under section 552.101 of the Government Code in conjunction with federal law and subchapter F of chapter 411 of the Government Code; (2) may withhold Exhibit C under section 552.108(a)(1) of the Government Code; and (3) must withhold the remaining motor vehicle information you have marked in Exhibit B under section 552.130 of the Government Code. The city 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,

Tamara H. Holland

Assistant Attorney General

Open Records Division

THH/ac

Ref: ID# 475758

Enc. Submitted documents

c: Requestor

(w/o enclosures)

Footnotes

1. Section 552.130(c) of the Government Code authorizes a governmental body to redact the information described in subsections 552.130(a)(1) and (a)(3) without the necessity of requesting a decision from this office. See Gov't Code § 552.130(c); see also id. § 552.130(d)-(e) (requestor may appeal governmental body's decision to withhold information under section 552.130(c) to attorney general, and governmental body withholding information pursuant to section 552.130(c) must provide notice to requestor). Open Records Decision No. 684 is a previous determination issued by this office authorizing all governmental bodies to withhold ten categories of information without the necessity of requesting a decision, including a Texas license plate number under section 552.130. Section 552.147(b) authorizes a governmental body to redact a living person's social security number from public release without the necessity of requesting a decision.

2. We note the requestor has a special right of access under section 552.023 of the Government Code to some of the information being released. See Gov't Code § 552.023(b) ("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"). Therefore, if the city receives another request for this information from a person who does not have a special right of access to this information, the city should resubmit this same information and request another decision from this office. See id. §§ 552.301(a), .302; Open Records Decision No. 673 (2001).

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