ATTORNEY GENERAL PROPOSES ADDRESS CONFIDENTIALITY RULES
On March 14, the Texas attorney general proposed detailed rulemaking regarding the new "victim address confidentiality program." This program was created by S.B. 74, which was enacted during the 2007 legislative session; it does the following:
(1) creates an address confidentiality program, administered by the Texas attorney general, to protect the identity of victims of family violence; (2) requires a city to accept a substitute post office box address that is designated by the attorney general if it is presented to the city by a participant in the program; (3) provides that the attorney general by rule may permit a city to require a participant in the program to provide the participant’s true address if it is necessary for the city to perform a duty or function that is imposed by law or administrative requirement; (4) requires the attorney general to disclose a participant’s true address if requested by a law enforcement agency; (5) requires a person to whom a participant’s true address is disclosed to maintain the requested information in a manner that protects the confidentiality of the participant’s true address; (6) allows a victim of family violence to chose a pseudonym to be used instead of the victim’s name and to designate the pseudonym in all public files and records, including police reports and reports of judicial proceedings; (7) provides that a law enforcement agency that receives a pseudonym form from a victim must remove the victim’s name and substitute the pseudonym for the name on all reports, files, and records in the agency’s possession, notify the attorney general of the pseudonym and that the victim has elected to be designated by a pseudonym, and maintain the form in a manner that protects the confidentiality of the information contained in the form; (8) prohibits a law enforcement agency investigating an offense from requiring a victim who completes and returns a pseudonym form to disclose the victim’s true name, address, or telephone number in connection with the investigation or prosecution of the offense; (9) provides that a completed and returned pseudonym form is confidential and may not be disclosed to any person, other than a defendant in the case or the defendant’s attorney, except by court order; (10) provides that a public employee who knowingly releases any identifying information of a victim younger than 17 years of age or a victim 17 years of age or older who has chosen a pseudonym commits an offense; (11) provides that a city is not required to use a pseudonym in a report, file, or record that is not intended for distribution to the public and will not be released as the result of an open records request; (12) provides that each original and supplemental list of registered voters must, among other things, contain the voter's name, residence address, or substitute post office box address if a voter is participating in the address confidentiality program; and (13) modifies the procedures for early voting by mail to allow a voter who is participating in the address confidentiality program to vote in that manner.
The proposed rules do not appear to allow a city to unilaterally require a participant in the program to submit the participant's true address to the city (see #3 in the bill description above). Instead, the rules provide that the city may request the address from the attorney general or may request an "exemption" that permits the city to require a participant to provide the address. Other than this difference, the rules appear to track the statute fairly closely.
The proposed rules can be viewed at the following link: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/texreg/archive/March142008/index.html.
Comments on the rules may be submitted until April 13 to Elaine Sample, Assistant Attorney General, Crime Victim's Compensation Program, Crime Victim Services Division, Office of the Attorney General, P.O. Box 12198, Austin, Texas 78711-2198, or by email to Elaine.Sample@oag.state.tx.us.