Agency
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Agency contact information for each series was current at the time of the report but may have changed in the interim. Please call (512-463-5455) for current contact information of the agency's records manager or records liaison for these records.
Record Series Reviews
Additional Record Series Review
Series Title: Legal opinions and advice
Agency: Texas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies
Contact: Stephen Foster, Hearings Officer
Obsolete record series? No
Ongoing record series? Yes
Annual accumulation: fractional
Agency holdings: Legal opinions and advice (1 cubic ft.) are retained
by the agency as long as they are administratively valuable. The agency's
actual holdings are 1976-[ongoing].
Description: This series consists of legal opinions and advice from
the Attorney General's office to the staff of the Board of Private Investigators
and Private Security Agencies, dating 1976-[ongoing]. An example of
such advice includes a list of the types of crimes involving moral turpitude.
Purpose: This record is created when legal advice is given to the agency
by the Attorney General's office, in order to aid the agency in fulfilling
its legal obligations to all parties, including the citizens of the
State of Texas. Note: This series should not include any legal opinions
or advice rendered on a matter in litigation or with regard to pending
litigation; these kinds of legal advice belong in the other series being
appraised in this supplemental report, Litigation files.
Agency Program: Duties of the board include the following: administering
examinations to applicants, and licensing, commissioning, and registering
persons and companies in the private security professions; approving
schools and instructors to train security officers; establishing training
requirements and criminal history background checks for armed private
security personnel; and investigating complaints from law enforcement
agencies, consumers, and the general public. (Vernon's Ann. Civ. St.,
Article 4413(29bb))
Arrangement: Chronological
Access constraints: None
Use constraints: None
Indexes or finding aids required for, or an aid to access? None
Gaps? None; legal opinions were not sought for the first seven years
of the agency's existence.
Problems: None
Known related records in other agencies: None
Previous destructions: Destruction requests on file in the Archives
and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives
Commission were checked for the Texas Board of Private Investigators
and Private Security Agencies, and none were found for this series or
for equivalent or related series.
Publications based on records: None
Series data from agency schedule:
Title: Legal opinions and advice
Series item number: 1.1.014
Agency item number: 150
Archival code: R
Retention: AV
Archival holdings: None at the Archives and Information Services Division
of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Appraisal Decision: The Board of Private Investigators and Private
Security Agencies has no in-house counsel, and must rely on the Attorney
General for legal advice and opinions. Occasionally included in the
archival series Meeting minutes are attorney general opinion reviews;
the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library
has a complete set of these minutes, 1969-1998. It is probably also
safe to assume that such advice and opinions are well-documented in
the records of the Attorney General.
The earlier recertification of the records retention schedule of the
Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies (approved
November 1994, the one on which I based my appraisal in March 1996)
gave no archival code to this series. That was in accord with the Texas
State Records Retention Schedule (RRS) revised in May 1992. That earlier
edition of the RRS made a distinction between Legal opinions and advice
from the Attorney General (1.1.014, where "The Office of the Attorney
General retains copies permanently"), and Legal opinions and advice
from agency legal counsel (1.1.015, coded "R" for archival review).
The 2nd edition of the RRS (effective January 1998) combined these two
series into one (1.1.014, "Legal opinions and advice from agency legal
counsel or the Attorney General, including any requests eliciting the
opinions"), coded "R" for archival review.
Since these legal opinions and advice are from the Attorney General,
the series is essentially duplicated in the Attorney General's records,
as well as being adequately summarized in the board's minutes. Therefore
this series is not archival. The Board of Private Investigators and
Private Security Agencies should replace the "R" code with the new archival
code of "E" (meaning "Exempted based upon archival appraisal"). They
need not be transferred to the Archives and Information Services Division
of the Texas State Library for either retention or review, but may be
discarded whenever the board deems them no longer administratively valuable
(AV).
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Additional Record Series Review
Series Title: Litigation files
Agency: Texas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies
Contact: Stephen Foster, Hearings Officer
Obsolete record series? No
Ongoing record series? Yes
Annual accumulation: 0.25 cubic ft.
Agency holdings: Litigation files (6 to 8 cubic ft.) are retained by
the agency until the case is closed, terminated, completed, expired,
or settled; they are then stored in the State Records Center for an
additional two years. The agency's actual holdings are 1986-[ongoing].
Description: This series consists of files concerning cases in which
litigation was initiated (or contemplated) against the Board of Private
Investigators and Private Security Agencies, dating 1986-[ongoing].
These files typically contain correspondence to and from the Attorney
General's office, correspondence to and from the person initiating the
litigation, interoffice communications, and court documents (if the
case went into litigation). Such litigation includes suits by both individuals
and companies.
Purpose: This record is created to prepare for real or potential litigation
in which the Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies
is involved, and to conduct that litigation.
Agency Program: Duties of the board include the following: administering
examinations to applicants, and licensing, commissioning, and registering
persons and companies in the private security professions; approving
schools and instructors to train security officers; establishing training
requirements and criminal history background checks for armed private
security personnel; and investigating complaints from law enforcement
agencies, consumers, and the general public. (Vernon's Ann. Civ. St.,
Article 4413(29bb))
Arrangement: Chronological
Access constraints: Although these records are listed as open ("O")
on the agency's records retention schedule, they very possibly contain
materials that are normally closed due to attorney-client privilege
and/or attorney work product. (V.T.C.A., Government Code, Sections 552.107
and 552.111)
Use constraints: None
Indexes or finding aids required for, or an aid to access? None
Gaps? No litigation files exist prior to 1986.
Problems: None
Known related records in other agencies: None
Previous destructions: Destruction requests on file in the Archives
and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives
Commission were checked for the Texas Board of Private Investigators
and Private Security Agencies, and none were found for this series or
for equivalent or related series.
Publications based on records: None
Series data from agency schedule:
Title: Litigation files
Series item number: 1.1.048
Agency item number: 330
Archival code: R
Retention: AC + 2
Archival holdings: None at the Archives and Information Services Division
of the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.
Appraisal Decision: Litigation is a serious matter in the life of any
state agency, but not all litigation files are of enduring value. Some
cases are precedent-setting, and/or involve issues that have more historical
value than other cases. Because of the mixed nature of this series,
it may not be possible to determine whether the whole series merits
archival retention without examining each file on a case-by-case basis.
The earlier recertification of the records retention schedule of the
Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies (approved
November 1994, the one on which I based my appraisal in March 1996)
gave no archival code to this series. That was in accord with the Texas
State Records Retention Schedule (RRS) revised in May 1992, although
that model document stated in the Comments column the following: "Review
before disposal; some cases that set legal precedents may merit a review
by the State Archives for historical reasons." The 2nd edition of the
RRS (effective January 1998) gives this series an archival code of "R"
and states in the Comments column the following: "cases that set legal
precedent or exhibit historical value will be evaluated by the Archives
and Information Services Division of the Texas State Library and Archives
Commission for archival preservation."
A legitimate question is whether this agency's litigation is adequately
documented in any other archival series that the agency creates. A cursory
review of Meeting minutes in our holdings failed to reveal any information
concerning litigation. Two other normal records series where one would
expect to find documentation of litigation - administrative correspondence
and annual reports - are not produced by this agency. In 1996 I questioned
former Records Administrator Roger Darrow about these two series (which
both appeared on their retention schedule at that time), and he explained
that they were both "empty" series. Substantive correspondence of the
agency is always placed in some appropriate records series, such as
investigative complaints, company applications, individual applications
licensed, or litigation files. And the agency produces annual
financial reports, but not the kind of narrative report meant by
the designation "annual and biennial reports." Therefore litigation
files contain apparently the only documentation of litigation in which
this agency has been involved, outside of the Attorney General's office.
This particular board has occasionally been involved in controversy,
such as the board's firing of the Executive Director in April 1997,
and investigations by the Travis County District Attorney and the Texas
Department of Public Safety regarding a state audit in May 1997. Of
course these incidents were respectively administrative and criminal,
rather than civil matters (which is the focus of litigation). But controversy
in one area suggests the possibility of controversy in the other.
Although not overwhelming, the volume of litigation files for this
agency is substantial (amounting to about one filing cabinet's worth
over a 12-year period).
To summarize:
- Litigation files are by nature uneven in significance, and usually
require case-by-case consideration from the standpoint of archival
appraisal.
- There is no other series created by this agency which adequately
summarizes litigation. In fact, the only archival series are Meeting
minutes, Biennial budget requests, Organization charts, and
Strategic plans.
- The agency has been involved in past controversies.
- The volume of their litigation files is not huge, but it is significant.
For all of these reasons, litigation files from this agency have been
appraised to be archival. The Board of Private Investigators and Private
Security Agencies should replace the "R" code with an archival code
of "A" on their records retention schedule. They should then transfer
to the Archives and Information Services Division of the Texas State
Library and Archives Commission all litigation files that have been
closed, terminated, completed, expired, or settled, and that have been
stored in the State Records Center for an additional two years. After
they have been transferred, these litigation files may be subjected
to a further, in-house appraisal by the appraisal staff of the Texas
State Library.
As to the issue of confidentiality of some records due to attorney-client
privilege and/or attorney work product, the Board of Private Investigators
and Private Security Agencies should do one of the following:
- separate those items from the rest of the files and not include
them in the transfer (always indicating when a document is missing,
and for what reason); or
- waive (in writing) their claims to confidentiality of records based
on attorney-client privilege and/or attorney work product. This latter
choice is the one preferred by the Texas State Library and Archives
Commission.
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