The Privacy Act allows agencies to exempt certain records from some of its provisions, including the right to disclosure, if the records fall within one of the categories specified in subsections (j) or (k) of the Act. One of these categories is records maintained by an agency or component thereof which performs as its principal function any activity pertaining to the enforcement of criminal laws, including police efforts to prevent, control, or reduce crime or to apprehend criminals, and the activities of prosecutors, courts, correctional, probation, pardon, or parole authorities, and which consists of (A) information compiled for the purpose of identifying individual criminal offenders and alleged offenders and consisting only of identifying data and notations of arrests, the nature and disposition of criminal charges, sentencing, confinement, release, and parole and probation status; (B) information compiled for the purpose of a criminal investigation, including reports of informants and investigators, and associated with an identifiable individual; or © reports identifiable to an individual compiled at any stage of the process of enforcement of the criminal laws from arrest or indictment through release from supervision. 5 U.S.C. § 552a (j) (2). Therefore, material reporting investigative efforts pertaining to the enforcement of criminal law falls within this category and can be exempted from the right to disclosure under the Privacy Act. References:
Overview of the Privacy Act: 2020 Edition, Ten Exemptions, subsection (j) (2).
Privacy Act Exemptions, subsection (j) (2).
IAPP CIPP/US Study Guide, page 66.
