a. Rules for active investigations.

Specified facts from investigatory or security records, without disclosure of the records themselves, must be disclosed unless disclosure would endanger the successful completion of an investigation, or related investigation, or endanger a person involved in the investigation. Cal. Gov’t Code §§ 6254(f)(1), (f)(2) and (f)(3).

For arrests, the agency must disclose such facts as the name, occupation, and detailed physical description of every individual arrested by the agency, as well as the time and date of arrest, the time and date of booking, the location of the arrest, the factual circumstances surrounding the arrest, the amount of bail set, the time and manner of release or the location where the individual is currently being held, and all charges the individual is being held upon, including any outstanding warrants from other jurisdictions and parole or probation holds must be disclosed. Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(f)(1).

For complaints or requests for assistance, the agency must disclose such facts as the time and nature of the response, the time, date and location of occurrence, the time and date of the report, the name and age of the victim, the factual circumstances surrounding the crime or incident, and a general description of any injuries, property, or weapons involved. Notwithstanding these mandatory disclosure requirements, an agency, at the victim’s request, may withhold the name of a victim of certain specified sexual crimes as set forth in the statute. Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(f)(2). Additionally, to obtain address information for individuals arrested by an agency or victims of crimes other than those expressly set forth in the statute, the requester must state under penalty of perjury that the information is sought for one of five specified purposes: scholarly, journalistic, political, governmental, or investigation purposes by a licensed private investigator. Cal. Gov’t Code § 6254(f)(3). Moreover, the requester must declare under penalty of perjury that the information obtained shall not be used, directly or indirectly, to sell a product or service. Id.

The mandatory disclosure provisions of Section 6254(f)(1) and (f)(2) have been held to apply only to those records pertaining to contemporaneous police activity and not to requests for arrest information about closed investigations. County of Los Angeles v. Superior Court (Kusar), 18 Cal. App. 4th 588, 598-99, 22 Cal. Rptr. 2d 409 (1993). This holding arose from an unusual factual setting in which a litigant made a Public Records Act request going back ten years to circumvent a prior discovery order and to obtain confidential police officer personnel information. Id.

The broad exemptions of 6254(f) are discretionary, however, and nothing precludes an agency from disclosing more than it is required to under the law. Cal. Gov’t Code § 6253(e).