Sault Ste. Marie must disclose police use of force policy, commission rules

When Hjerstedt appealed the circuit court’s decision, a panel of the Court of Appeals sided with her in February 2023 and ordered the Sault Ste. Marie to issue him a non-redacted copy of the use of force policy.

The city then appealed the case to the Michigan Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case but sent one provision of the case up for review — last December, the high court ordered the case back to Chippewa County Circuit Court. The justices ruled that the lower court did not address a defense raised by Sault Ste. Marie’s attorneys in the original lawsuit, when the city argued that the use-of-force policy was an internal staff manual and was exempt from records requests under FOIA provisions for law enforcement agencies.

The trial court again sided with the city, Chippewa County Chief Circuit Judge James Lampros wrote in a March ruling Sault Ste. Maria officials were entitled to provide a redacted copy of the use-of-force policy, agreeing with their assessment that it fell within the FOIA exemptions for personnel manuals.

Lampros’ decision was again appealed, and the Court of Appeal overturned it on Thursday.

“We conclude that the term “staff handbook” was intended to be used synonymously with terms such as “employee handbook,” and to be limited to tools provided to employees to describe terms of employment, internal employment procedures, and sometimes the workplace. policies,” Patel wrote. “The City’s use-of-force policy is contained in a stand-alone general order that does not fall within this definition and therefore was not exempt from disclosure under (FOIA).”