AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- The Texas Attorney General's office has updated a ruling issued earlier this year that would have potentially increased the amount of information that could be released from the personnel files of Austin Police officers.
"We have received new information that affects the facts on which this ruling
was based," reads a letter from the AG's office dated Oct. 17.
Under state law, any records relating to a complaint against an officer that results in disciplinary action or were found to violate department policy are subject to a public information request. However, any complaints against an officer that do not result in disciplinary action are maintained in what is known as a "G file", named after the section of the state's Local Government Code - 143.089(g).
Under the Austin Police Oversight Act, which voters approved in May, the city is prohibited from maintaining a G file. The city's legal department has maintained that the G file protections would continue unless exemptions were negotiated in a meet-and-confer agreement with the Austin Police Association - an agreement that lapsed at the end of March.
Tuesday's updated ruling came after the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas (CLEAT) and Austin City Council member Mackenzie Kelly both reached out to the AG's office on its initial ruling.
The language contained in the APOA ordinance has been questioned by both city labor negotiators and the APA, who agreed that many of the ordinance's provisions "will not come to pass" - certainly while no contract exists. APA continues to say the records access portion of the ordinance violates state law.
