Texas police ask AG to block release of information

"Open records advocates questioned decisions by Galveston and Friendswood police departments, which seek to keep birth dates and complainant information private.

Citing increasing identity theft cases, Galveston police asked Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to restrict from view dates of births, which normally appear on police reports available to the public.

Friendswood police have asked Abbott to keep private the name and other information about a person who reported a case of online harassment.

When The Daily News requested the information, neither department said it would seek an attorney general’s opinion until asked to do so. A governmental body that receives a written request for information that it wishes to withhold from public disclosure must ask for a decision by the attorney general, according to the 2010 Public Information Handbook.

In a response to redacting dates of birth, Galveston police Capt. Thom Karlok told The Daily News in an e-mail that age, rather than birth dates, is a required disclosure. “I made the decision to omit that piece of information as a guard against identity theft,” Karlok stated.

No Evidence Linking ID Theft

The department has no evidence linking the release of birth dates on police reports to any case of identity theft, Karlok said."  
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Texas: Increase in requests to withhold public data worries advocates

Requests that the Texas attorney general withhold information requested by the public increased 88 percent in five years, according to a Caller-Times analysis of state records.

It’s a trend that open-government advocates say could indicate an abuse of the state system by local governments.

The city of Corpus Christi sought to deny more than a third of the requests it received for public information in 2008 and nearly half the requests in the first six months of 2009. The practice mirrors a pattern among state agencies and Texas cities: referring an increasing percentage of requests to the attorney general for review and possible denial, despite no major changes in the law’s exceptions that allow some types of information to be withheld.



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