Opinion No. 2013-152

December 10, 2013

Sergeant Jeffrey Plunkett
Little Rock Police Department
700 W. Markham Street
Little Rock, Arkansas 72201

Dear Sgt. Plunkett:

You have requested my opinion regarding the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”). Your request is based on A.C.A. § 25-19-105(c)(3)(B)(i) (Supp. 2013). This subsection authorizes the custodian, requester, or the subject of personnel or employee evaluation records to seek an opinion from this office stating whether the custodian’s decision regarding the release of such records is consistent with the FOIA.

Your letter indicates that someone has sent an FOIA request to the Little Rock Police Department for three categories of information on “all current full-time employees.” For this group, the requester seeks the “employees’ names and positions with the designation of who lives in Little Rock and who does not.” The custodian has determined that the names and positions qualify as “personnel records” under the FOIA and should be released. The custodian has also cited the FOIA exception (section 25-19-105(b)(13)) for “personal contact information,” which includes “home addresses.”

You object to the release of your name and position because of who the requester is and what the requester might plan to do with that information. You also object to the release of your “address.” But the custodian has stated that “[y]our address is covered under A.C.A. § 25-19-105(b)(13).” It thus does not appear from the records before me that the custodian intends to release your address. Consequently, I will confine this opinion to a review of the custodian’s decision regarding your name and position.



RESPONSE

My statutory duty is to state whether the custodian’s decision is consistent with the FOIA. Because I have not reviewed any specific records, I can only opine more generally about how the FOIA applies to the release of public employees’ names and positions.

This office has consistently held that a public employee’s name and position qualify as “personnel records” under the FOIA.[1] The FOIA requires that personnel records be disclosed unless doing so constitutes a clearly unwarranted invasion of the employee’s personal privacy.[2] This office has repeatedly held that the release of a public employee’s name and position rarely rises to that level.[3] This is particularly the case where (as you say here) the requester already has your name, position, and photograph.

Therefore, the custodian’s decision to release your name and position is, in my opinion, consistent with the FOIA.

You also ask me to address several questions relating to the requester’s identity, how he intends to use the information he obtains, and the circumstances surrounding his request. My authority under the FOIA only extends to reviewing the custodian’s decision about whether to release certain employee-related records in response to an FOIA request. Thus, I am unable to address your several specific questions, all of which fall outside the scope of my authority.[4]

Assistant Attorney General Ryan Owsley prepared this opinion, which I hereby approve.

Sincerely,



Dustin McDaniel
Attorney General

DM/RO:cyh
[1]See Op. Att’y Gen. Nos. 2011-114, 2011-045.
[2]A.C.A. § 25-19-105(b)(12).
[3]See Op. Att’y Gen. 2011-045.
[4]See Op. Att’y Gen. Nos. 2013-088, 2010-140, and 1996-386.