Sleepless in Midland

Doctor Rotations

One of my volunteer jobs involves a weekly trip to about a dozen doctors' offices. So it's always nice to know just where those offices are. They've pretty much settled down now, but recently there was a mass doctor rotation as Midland Memorial Hospital plowed up and paved over land where several doctors' offices once stood in order to make room for the new 87,000 square foot medical office building.

The MMH medical office building is a sprawling two level structure, and it's a long walk and possibly an elevator ride from any outside door to most of the doctors' offices. Allison Cancer Center is on ground level, so at least the cancer patients get a break once they get to the building. But first there's the long walk from the parking lot to the building door. But not to worry, there's valet parking.

Valet parking? Yep, for two bucks. For the cancer patients the $2 probably seems trivial.  Once a person gets diagnosed with cancer all of those concerns about a stranger driving the family car probably no longer seem significant. And even the newly imposed valet parking fee might not seem that bad considering the alternative.

But there was one move that probably left many patients scratching their heads if not clutching their chests. It was the prestigious Permian Cardiology. They had a nice ground level office suite at 2405 W. Missouri Ave. which is about a half mile from the hospital. It had lots of parking and a patient friendly short walk to the front door. To the casual observer it looked like a very nice medical office building with a spacey and well equipped workout room for the recovering heart patients. (The architect has it on display here). So one has to wonder what precipitated their move to the MMH's new medical office building. Did they get an offer they couldn't refuse?

Maybe so. Insiders know all the details, but the taxpayers and patients have to dig through the public records. And a look at the Midland County real property records reveals that SKMB LLC dba Permian Cardiology conveyed the property to the Midland County Hospital District on 4/15/08. And two days later a lien on that property, which was secured by a note for $1,820,575.00, was released.

Did MMH overpay? That's a lot of money, and that's just the old lien, so we don't know what the full price was. Maybe the cardiologists figured that the real estate market was near the top and that was the right time to sell. Or it's possible they felt that their patients needed more exercise, and the forced march from the parking lot to the new office was just what the doctor ordered. But not to worry. It's hike or pay as the patient confronts the $2.00 valet parking, at least until MMH decides the market can pay more.

CSI Midland, plus what to do with that Bad Boy Blast money

I can never remember, does life imitate art or is the other way around? In any event, there seems to have been a name change for an important group within the Midland Police Department. For the longest time they were called by the confusing name of Identification. What did they do? Here's what the MPD website says:

IDENTIFICATION (FORSENICS) UNIT
This unit is comprised of a Civilian Supervisor and four (4) Technicians. They are responsible for the evidence collection from crime scenes, the processing and analysis of crime scene photographs and fingerprints and the comparison of evidence to known offenders and suspects.

CSI in other words, as seen on TV. Now the name on their vehicle says it all: Midland Police Department Crime Scene Investigation. OK. Glad we got that cleared up.

Moving right along. What should the MPD do with the $33,000 it received from the fund raising Bad Boy Blast shotgun match and about which the City Council said (pdf) "the donated funds will be used to purchase law enforcement equipment and technology ..."? They aren't seeking suggestions, but that's never stopped us in the past.

How about a License Plate Recognition system? A special camera is mounted on the car which has the capability of reading license plates and transmitting it to a database which compares that number with numbers in the system. A stolen car triggers an alert, and score one for the good guys. They are in use all around the country, and apparently they work. Here's a Fox news video showing the system in practice. And here's a simple explanation of how the system works.

How much would one cost? Here's an Agenda Report (pdf) dated 4/22/08 proposing that the City of Oakland purchase six units at a cost of $18,620.00 each with an installation fee of $4,500.00 for all six. So one unit would probably fall within range with some change left over.

However, just as an aside. Since the automobile insurance companies have the most to lose from car thefts then they would have the most to gain with an increased stolen car recovery system. So shouldn't they chip in for such a system? Just wondering.

A tv show for skeptics, maybe

There are a lot of misconceptions out there, and when something happens that isn't easily explainable there are people who jump to the conclusion that it must be magic, paranormal, extraterrestrials, big feet or - shudder - GHOSTS! And there are people who make money off of this uncritical thinking. See, for example, Ghost Hunters: Plumbers by day - ghost hunters by night!

One of my favorite podcasts is The Skeptics Guide to the Universe hosted weekly by Steven Novella, M.D., with a regular panel and an occasional guest. The panelists are always well prepared and ready to dump cold water on some pseudoscience that was reported as news. Being a physician, Dr. Novella frequently takes aim at homeopathy, but they cover a broad range of topics. One recent podcast contained a segment in which a panelist provided tips on how to scam the timeshare scammers - go here to get it. They are always educational, entertaining and enlightening.

So here's the good news. There's a tv show in the works: Skeptologists. Their website says that principal photography has been completed for the pilot episode and that they are pitching it to the networks. I sure hope they can sell it. If only I could find a good luck charm to lend to them, you know, one that really works.

Toyota Tundras, revisited

In late December of '07 we checked in on the local Toyota dealer and counted 67 Tundras on the lot. See San Antonio Toyota factory cranking out those trucks posted in early January '08. Around that time regular unleaded gasoline was going for about 2.96$ per gallon, and I observed, "Too bad they get such low gas mileage. But we'll worry about that another day."

Well, that day has come - what a difference seven months can make. Today regular unleaded is going is for about a buck more per gallon, and buyers are avoiding those gas guzzlers like a salmonella salad. There were 72 Tundras on the lot today, and the sales personnel are probably sweating. Toyota is suspending operations at the San Antonio Tundra plant for three months to let the market absorb all of those trucks. See San Antonio rolls with Toyota changes. Want one of those trucks? You could probably swing a pretty good deal now, but it sure is a trade off with gasoline prices being what they are. Someday the bubble will burst, but no one can predict when that might occur.

Toyota is a great company, but they sure did overestimate how many of those big trucks this market could absorb. The workers in San Antonio are being kept on the payroll, but it's a different picture for the suppliers. In the meantime, hybrids are selling like hotcakes, so that's where the production efforts will be directed.

As for me, I'm holding out for a Tesla once the new car bugs get worked out and the price comes down from the Exosphere.  Better yet, maybe Toyota will make a reasonably priced clone.

Handguns - more accidental discharges

Readers of this blog know that there is a particular brand of handgun that I believe is more prone to accidents than the others. Well, here's something for those who disagree -- two accidental discharges with handguns that aren't Glocks. So here they are in the hopes that the more we can learn about accidents the better we may be able to avoid them.

First - In Mendocino County, California, in the early morning hours of July 3, 2008, the Sheriff's office responded to a call about an accidental discharge resulting in two people injured, but thankfully, no one died. Here's the Sheriff's Office press release for Report Number O08-1878. The local media had fun with it in Woman tries to kill mice, shoots self and later, Criminal charges sought for 'mouse shooter'.

According to the report it was a .44 caliber, single action, six shot revolver. How did it happen? Here's segment from the press release:

When she went to draw the revolver from the holster, the revolver slipped out and fell to the floor. Upon impact with the floor, the revolver fired one shot, which passed through her right knee cap, then continued upward and traveled across the front of the 42 year old males pants, where it struck a set of keys that were hanging from his belt loop. The bullet then glanced off the keys and tore a hole in the males pants, and continued to travel between the pants and a pair of shorts he was wearing. The bullet came to rest when it entered the coin pocket of the males pants, where it was recovered for evidence.

That's what any guy would call a "close call." Is that a bullet in your pocket or are you just happy to see the EMT?  Both.

There may have been alcohol involved, and that's a big NO NO when handling guns, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt and assume the gun was dropped and it discharged when it struck the floor. What was the make and model? I don't know, and my email and phone call to Lt. Smallcomb of the Mendocino Sheriff's Office remain unanswered.

Modern handguns have safety features that are supposed to prevent a discharge resulting from a drop. However, one old one single action .44 caliber revolver doesn't. It's the Ruger Blackhawk, and Ruger has bent over backward in its efforts to educate people and get that corrected. Here's the Ruger Safety Announcement, and here's their free offer (PDF) to retrofit an old handgun with the safety feature.

It's hard to imagine that there are owners of these old guns who haven't gotten the free safety feature or who don't keep the barrel chamber empty until they are ready to shoot. Some owners of the old guns think they are more valuable as antiques without the new safety feature. However, Ruger will give the owner the parts that were removed in the retrofit, so it shouldn't make any difference to the value.

Well, if there's one thing I've learned from the comments left at some of my accidental discharge posts it's this: Handguns don't cause accidental discharges. Careless people handling guns cause accidental discharges.

Second - Western New York State in 2001. An off-duty police officer went to an imaging center to have an MR imaging examination. He misunderstood directions and carried his handgun into the MR room. He took his Colt model 1991 A-1 compact .45 caliber semiautomatic pistol out of the holster and tried to place it on a cabinet three feet away from the magnet bore when the magnet pulled it from his hand and into the bore where it discharged on impact. Here's an excerpt from the Report (via Say Uncle):

At the time the weapon discharged, it was reportedly in a cocked and locked position; that is, the hammer was cocked and the thumb safety was engaged to prevent the hammer from striking the firing pin. A live round was in the chamber. (Many people who choose this weapon for personal protection will carry it in this manner because it allows them to quickly fire the weapon if needed.)

When the firearm was removed from the magnet, the gun was still in a cocked and locked position. An empty cartridge was found in the chamber. The presence of an empty cartridge in the chamber is highly unusual. If the thumb safety were not engaged and the weapon fired normally by depressing the trigger, the normal backward recoil of the slide should have automatically ejected the empty cartridge, and a new live round should have automatically been chambered. As discussed earlier, the thumb safety performs two functions: it prevents the sear from releasing the hammer, thereby preventing the hammer from striking the firing pin; it also locks the slide in place, preventing retrograde motion of the slide and automatic ejection of the empty cartridge. Thus, the presence of an empty cartridge in the chamber confirms that the thumb safety was engaged at the time the gun was fired. Given that the thumb safety was engaged when the gun discharged, it is also likely that the normal trigger and hammer mechanism of firing the gun was bypassed because the thumb safety would have also prevented release of the hammer.

The gun likely discharged as a result of the effect of the magnetic field on the firing pin block. The firing pin block was probably drawn into its uppermost position by force of the magnetic field. The firing pin block has to overcome only light pressure from a relatively small spring to release the firing pin. The pistol was likely drawn into the magnetic field so that the muzzle struck the magnet's bore first. With the firing pin allowed to move freely in its channel, the force of the impact on the muzzle end was sufficient to cause the firing pin to overcome its spring pressure and move forward to strike the primer of the chambered round.

So what have learned today? Don't handle firearms when inebriated; if you have a Ruger Blackhawk get the free safety conversion; and finally, don't take your guns to the MR room.

"Curb Your Enthusiasm" leaves no sacred cow unskewered

Over the past week or so I've watched seasons two and four of Curb Your Enthusiasm on DVD, and I can't recall laughing so hard at a TV show.

That's the show featuring Larry David as himself living the good life in Los Angeles while trying to remain politically correct the whole time. David had his comedy credentials established in "Seinfeld," but "Curb Your Enthusiasm" really locks them in and suggests that he was probably responsible for the funniest "Seinfeld" jokes.

Larry David is a well know Hollywood liberal, and that serves a good purpose in "Curb." Each episode has a few story lines, and many of them have situations in which David inadvertently offends someone on the subject of race, gender, disability, religion, sexual preference or just about anything else that could offend someone. Some of the situations are a bit contrived, but they all work at some level. Only a well known liberal could get away with some of those jokes. And while Larry is always the butt of the joke, they wouldn't work without the hypersensitivity some people display.

I won't spoil the jokes for you except for this one. In the first episode in season four Larry's wife suggests that they renew their wedding vows on their tenth anniversary. Larry doesn't have a problem with that. So she's composing the vows she plans to recite at the ceremony and reads them aloud to him. The vows say something to the effect that Larry and Cheryl will honor and love each other through eternity. Wait a minute. Eternity? The original marriage vows were til death do they part, but now she's changing the rules. And there goes Larry's hope of being single in the afterlife.

Okay, I'll spoil one more for you. Cheryl agrees to allow Larry to have one affair before their tenth anniversary. (Hey, I told you it was contrived, but it sort of makes sense when a flashback tells us that she made the promise before they got married.) Larry finds a smart, attractive, dynamic woman who agrees to take part in the affair, but during the foreplay he discovers that she is a Republican. Oh no. That ruins it for him. He just can't go through with it. Guilt? Fidelity? Religion? Nope, none of those things matter. It's his liberal politics that keep him from having a good time. What a hoot!

Anyway, it may not be for everyone, but it sure made me laugh.

Dog Park Diary

Big dogs, little dogs, young dogs and old dogs. Pedigrees and mixed mutts plus everything in between. That's what you find at the dog park.

Hogan's Run Dog Park is a fabulous park for dogs and humans alike. The humans pal around and chat it up while the canines run, sniff, chase, and do all the things dogs do. It's great fun for everyone.

The dog park was on the drawing board for a long time before the Midland City Council finally gave it the green light, and to those of us who patronize the park that investment really has paid off.

There are various groups of dog park patrons who have become fast friends. But they aren't cliques, they're more like a bunch of soccer moms watching their kids play as we watch those hounds run, explore, or play "queen of the pool." Yeah, someone purchased an expensive looking animal feeding trough and placed it out there for the dogs to use. Fill it with water, and it become a small pool.

People clean up after their dogs, for the most part. But sometimes the ground gets a little spotty, if you know what I mean. When there are a lot of people at the park they get distracted and don't notice when Fido drops a load. Some people will only pick up after their own dog and not other dogs, but other more community-minded people help keep the park clean. After all, one of the rules is to leave the park cleaner than it was when you arrived. And it works. Thanks to all of you community-minded people who frequent the dog park! Thanks for keeping it clean!

There's a new local forum for pet owners, MyWestTexasPets.com, which provides a nifty way for people to discuss pet issues, complain about Fido's barking, or bemoan Fluffy's passing. (The Friends of the Dog Park was a group of citizens who helped get the park going, and that group had a website, but it had fallen into disrepair when I last visited, and it wasn't available when I checked today, so it may be off line.) And here's the link to City's webpage about the dog park where you can see the rules. And to locate the Dog Park see the city map.

Previously at Sleepless in Midland (oldest first):
May 16, 2004 -- Free Range Dog Park in Midland - Update #1
August 20, 2004 -- Soggy Doggy Splash Day
August 04, 2005 -- Soggy Doggy Splash Day II coming August 13, 2005
August 14, 2005 -- Soggy Doggy Splash Day update
August 28, 2005 -- Midland Dog Park - Scooping Up
October 17, 2005 -- A citizen's alternative to an expensive dog park
October 25, 2005 -- Dog Park issue before City Council today (10/25/05)
November 07, 2005-- City Hall -- Dog Park vote coming tomorrow
February 28, 2006 -- Release the hounds!
April 02, 2006 -- Dog Park Almost Complete!
April 02, 2006 -- Three Dog Tales
April 09, 2006 -- Dog Park -- completed but all locked up
August 13, 2006 -- Soggy Doggy Splash Day 3
February 12, 2007 -- Naming the dog park
March 21, 2007 -- Hogan's Run
June 30, 2007 -- A fond farewell to Coy Wills
October 20, 2007 -- Dogs love it!

Heck, it's almost like a dog park diary.

Oldest Midland Firefighter

He was the second paid firefighter in the city of Midland to pull up the boots and put on the bunkers. He was E. D. (Doyle) Fitzgerald, and he passed away the other day at the age of 102. Here's a link to his obituary.

In the early days, like most communities at the time, the fire department was an all volunteer effort. But as the city grew the elected officials recognized the need to hire some full time people. And Mr. Fitzgerald was the second such firefighter to be put on the payroll.

The city bought its first modern fire truck in 1917 for the princely sum of $5,800 consisting of a payment of $1,160 within 10 days after delivery followed by four annual payments of $1,160 plus 6% annual interest. Engine One and Engine Two can be seen at the Midland Fire Department museum.

Thanks to Asst. Chief Eddie Klatt for the heads up about this.

Bees - are they killers or not?

Last year the bee news was all about Colony Collapse Disorder. This year the little buzzers seem to be everywhere.

It's been almost four years since killer bees have actually killed someone in the area. But it has been only a couple of months since they killed a dog.

Anyway, I'm looking at the overgrown shrubs at the Sleepless Estate, and they are encroaching seriously into the alleyway. I was all set to trim them this fourth of July weekend, but there are all these little bees pollinating, or lapping up nectar, or maybe just stopping to smell the flowers.  (Note the bee's tongue in the photo on the left.)

So how does one distinguish a killer bee from a non-killer bee? (Actually, the politically correct term is "Africanized honey bee," but the bee probably doesn't care.) And the killer bee looks identical to the European honey bee. In fact, the TAM chart uses the same jpg drawing for both. So to find out for sure, one has to gather 50 of them, ship them off to the Texas Honey Bee I.D. Lab, and wait for the results. For more immediate results simply attack the hive and assess the intensity of the counter attack, i.e., see whether or not they try to kill you.

As for my situation, the shrub trimming is going to have to wait until after a hard freeze.

The Urban Explorer ventures into the unknown.

Urban Explorer here, ready to tackle the unknown territories. Today's adventure takes us to a colony in North Midland County, Texas, where a tribe of people live on the fringes of a metropolitan city. Extensive internet research yielded the location of this isolated colony, and a special thanks goes to brave pioneers Eric and his mate who have taken up residence there and are living among the natives. He exposed this colony to the modern world with aerial photos at his blog.

Thanks to the information provided at that site, the Urban Explorer was able to navigate his way to the wilderness outpost although he was not adventurous enough to try to locate our pioneering friend. However, we do hope that said friend is able to keep his guard up out there in the wild.

To explore this area one needs to head North from the city on "A" street and pass what could be either a CIA rendition facility, or a gated community. Do the inmates there have Habeas Corpus rights? Never mind, let's not get distracted.

First, some ground rules. The Code of the Urban Explorer is extensive, but here are four important rules: (1) don't interfere with the cycle of life; (2) avoid encounters with a female and her young; (3) steer clear of man eaters of any species; and (4) always assume that natives are not cannibals unless there is evidence to the contrary.

So here we are at the edge of the known world, and the road leads to two watering holes one of which has a nice creek flowing into it. And you will be pleased to know that it is a very pleasant and reasonably safe experience hiking along that babbling brook.

The brook feeds into a pond, and the clever natives have constructed a pumping system which apparently recycles the pond water back into the stream to keep it flowing. The stream is lined to prevent the thirsty earth from sucking up all the water.

They've stocked the stream with tiny fish as cute as snail darters. But don't let your guard down, those little swimmers could grow into giant man eating leviathans.

Our journey continues. Along the creek path the Urban Explorer encounters a native human female adult with two children. The Code dictates caution when encountering females with their young, so try to appear non-threatening, and maybe they won't attack. These particular natives don't appear threatened or threatening. They were, however, being stalked by a meat eating canine which was following close at their heals. It's sad sometimes, but the Urban Explorer cannot interfere with life's cycles. Not to worry, though, because this canine was not much bigger than a large shoe.

As the Urban Explorer followed the meanderings of the creek he felt eyeballs staring at him, and sure enough, there was a trio of subterranean creatures watching every move. Walk softly so as not to antagonize these creatures as there is no telling to what lengths they will go to protect their young. Take little comfort in the knowledge that they may not be man eaters as those sharp teeth can bite through pecan hulls.

Continuing down the path we encounter a giant spider stalking a much smaller insect. Such is the cycle of life, and we cannot intervene. And so our journey ends.

It was a pleasant experience, one that maybe you can experience too. Enjoy the outdoors, be safe, and remember the Code.

Urban Explorer out.

Note to readers. Many of you consider these efforts at humor to be lame, unfunny and possibly even offensive. And to you I would like to offer my most sincere apology but also note that there will be no refunds.

However, there are a few out there who actually do appreciate these efforts. And I would like to address you at this time, and specifically, make some generalizations about you. You are smart, creative, unconventional, and have a very good sense of humor. You are active, you are fun to be around, and you are probably successful at everything you attempt. The world needs you. Thanks for all that you do, and keep up the good work.

Black Gold 102

I was a big admirer of the derrick man at the rig on which I worked those long years ago. He was a combination circus acrobat and strong man way up there as he grabbed those three-pipe sections and danced them into a neat vertical stack. He had what it took -- strength, balance and courage, lots of courage. So I was glad that they showed a little bit about that job on the second episode of Black Gold which aired on TNT the other day.

The show seems to be trying to cover many aspects of the job, and it's fun to see all they do. In the latest episode they got the pipe stuck in the hole. And that was a treat to watch as they dropped the hammer trying to jar it loose.

That never happened while I worked on the rig, but the previous shift did twist off a bit one time. They pulled out of the hole, and there was nothing but a twisted piece of metal where there should have been more pipe and a bit. About that time our crew arrived to start our day, so we got to fix the problem they caused, the bums. To a green floor hand hand like me fishing for a bit seemed like an interesting variation in the job, but what a nightmare it was for the company men as all they saw was money going down a hole. To retrieve it we had to screw on a device that would grab the remainder of the pipe and pull it up. It was slow going, but it worked, and the company men were ecstatic.

Other less exiting things happened, like lost circulation. That happens when the drill hits a porous zone that soaks up all of the drilling fluid. I was on the night shift that month, and all night long we carried sacks of stuff to dump into the drilling mud to try to regain circulation. There were sacks of cotton seed hulls which were supposed to stop up the holes, and they were light and easy to carry.  But then there were sacks of the dry powder that when mixed with water makes drilling mud. I don't trust my memory on this, but I think those bags weighed 100 pounds each. Maybe they only weighed 50 pounds, but those suckers were heavy. At the end of the shift we were exhausted, but that didn't stop the smartypants I worked with. One said, "Get some sleep, you might have to WORK tomorrow!" Hardy har har.

Here's a story I heard about fishing for a bit. A rig was drilling a deep hole in another state, and they lost a bit. They fished for a long time and eventually pulled it out. The boss was a big bully, a former college football player, and when things got serious he was no fun to be around. So here they were, cleaning junk off the deck floor immediately after they had spent a day retrieving a lost bit, feeling a combination of joy and exhaustion. But someone left a chain on the rig floor, and the motors were causing the floor to vibrate. They had a video camera aimed at the hole, and my friend was in the dog house or the trailer or wherever they had the monitor. And he said he just happened to glance at the monitor just as that chain slithered like a snake down the hole. My friend had the job of telling the boss, and so started another nightmare day.

Anyway, I don't know if those of us on basic cable will get to see the rest of Black Gold, but I'm optimistic. If it gets enough eyeballs over there on TruTV then maybe we will get the reruns.

In the meantime, check out this comment left by Scotte at my post about the first episode. He had some interesting and insightful things to say about it, and he seems to know what he's talking about.

Previously: Good news for basic cable subscribers - "Black Gold" to be rebroadcast on TNT and
"Black Gold" - it was a want ad for West Texas roughnecks.

Browsing the Texas Open Records rulings

The Texas Attorney General's Open Records rulings are on line, and browsing through them provides an educational and entertaining way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

If a governmental body in Texas receives an Open Records request and wishes to withhold the information then it has ten business days within which to request a ruling from the Attorney General. And given the number of rulings, one is tempted to assume that every Open Records request submitted to any governmental body in Texas gets appealed to the AG for a ruling.

Go to the Texas Atty General's website, plug a key word into the search engine, and browse through the rulings for a study of what is being requested and how the Assistant AG's handled it. The reader doesn't get to see the results of the request but merely the ruling on whether or not the government body needs to supply it and the legal basis of the ruling. What follows is a sampling, but not a treatise. Each letter applies only to that particular request, but hopefully, there's some consistency. Here goes.

August 27, 1997 -- The Midland County District Attorney received a request from ABC News 20/20 for: "any and all copies of documents pertaining to the rape and/or sexual assault of civilians by law enforcement officers in the state of Texas." Link-PDF. The AG ruled that some of the info could be withheld and some couldn't. The addendum to this letter provides a list of they type of information from a criminal report that is available to the public. (Was there a 20/20 show utilizing this information? I must have missed it.)

January 29, 2008 -- The Abilene Assistant City Attorney received a request from the Abilene Reporter-News for the release of information regarding a sexual-assault offense report, and the Texas Assistant Attorney General letter ruling states that information tending to identify the sexual assault victim is private and must be withheld. Link-PDF.

March 27, 2008 -- Abilene again. This request was for the release of information regarding a specific undescribed incident apparently involving a police officer. The Assistant Attorney General noted that Abilene is a civil service city under Chapter 143 of the Local Government Code and distinguished personnel files, which are not subject to disclosure, from civil service files which are. See section 143.089(a) for a description of information required to be put in the civil service file, for example, investigatory material in a case resulting in disciplinary action. However, in this case the AAG ruled that the certain information could be withheld because of a pending criminal investigation but basic information must be released. Link- PDF. (See the next letter about a request for police officer personnel files in a non-civil service city.)

May 12, 2008 -- This letter regards a request for personnel files of two Midland police officers. The AAG relied on Government Code Section 552.022 and stated that the city may not withhold performance evaluations, completed reports, and completed investigations excepting certain personal information considered confidential by law, e.g., medical, illness, handicap, financial and criminal history. But another exception applied to certain information related to litigation pended in the federal court case of Ofelia Cano et. al v. the City of Midland, et al. Link. (That lawsuit alleges damages resulting from the violation of several Constitutional Amendments during a traffic stop and subsequent incarceration.)

September 6, 2007 -- This is in regard to a request from Lulu Corona of the Permian Basin League of United Latin American Citizens to the Midland Police Department for information related to allegations of police brutality or harassment between January 1, 1987 and May 31, 2007. The letter from the AAG specifies that certain information may be withheld, specifically, motor vehicle record information, medical records, information obtained from a polygraph examination, and information in regard to common law privacy. The remaining information must be released. Link. (This was a big news item at the time. Maybe the information would cast a bad light on the police department. On the other hand, maybe the public would look at it and decide the police department is doing a good job. But why has this information never been made public?  See next letter.)

September 11, 2007 -- A Midland Reporter-Telegram reporter directed a request to the City of Midland for the following: (1) complaints filed against officers of the Midland Police Department for any kind of harassment; (2) suspects killed in officer-involved shootings; (3) complaints filed against officers of the department for police brutality; and (4) the number of people who have died while in custody of officers from the department. The AAG replied noting that the City's request to the AG was not made within the time required by Gov't Code § 552.301, and therefore there is a presumption that everything is public information unless there is a compelling reason to withhold it. And in this instance other law made confidential information regarding drivers' licenses and vehicle registration. Everything else was to be released. Link. (Did the MR-T publish this? I don't remember it. Hmmm, I wonder what kind of ruling the AAG would provide in response to an open record request to the city for a copy of the information submitted to the MR-T pursuant to that open record request. Or for that matter, perhaps an open records request could be submitted directly to the Midland Reporter-Telegram. After all, it is the "Official Newspaper" of the city of Midland -- it's codified! See chapter 9 in the City Code.)

July 16, 2001 -- Former tv reporter Melissa Hendrix made a request to the Ector County Sheriff for " for records relating to an internal investigation conducted by the West Texas Narcotics Enforcement Task Force on three of its officers." The AAG noted that a ruling was not sought within the statutory time period, and therefore the information would be subject to release without a compelling reason. In this case the compelling reason was that other law enforcement agencies were investigating, and the release of the information might interfere with the prosecution of a crime. Link.

January 22, 2008 -- The Lubbock Police Department received a request for a red light camera video, and the AAG ruled that it must be released as the Transportation Code did not make it confidential. Link.

June 5, 2007 -- Eddie Garcia of CBS 7 made a request to the Midland Police Department for information regarding "an internal affairs investigation involving a department officer and the inappropriate use of a dashboard video camera." (Could this be that infamous video of the overweight man pushing a car while trying to hold up his pants?) The internal investigation file had already been released, and the issue concerned the video. The AAG noted that there was a legitimate public interest in the video because it was created by a department officer using department resources, and it was the subject of a department investigation and therefore it couldn't be withheld because of common law privacy even though it could be embarrassing to the person in the video.  However, the video showed the license plate number of the vehicle which is protected by other statutes. The MPD lacked the capability to block out the plate number on the video, and therefore the video could not be released. Link. (Pssst. You can see the video on Youtube here and here!)

Had enough? This could go on forever, so I'll turn it over to you to do your own searches. Have fun!