A police department in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has been ordered to release its full policy on the use of force after failing to convince the state appeals court that portions should be concealed from the public.

The court noted that Amy Hjerstedt’s request in Sault Ste. Marie followed the killing of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis in 2020.

“Michigan has a strong public policy favoring public access to government information,” Judge Sima Patel said Tuesday in a 3-0 opinion.

“Although certain information may be exempt from disclosure, the statutory exemptions are not intended to shield public bodies from the transparency that FOIA was designed to foster,” Patel said, referring to Michigan’s public records law.

Sault Ste. Marie, population 13,400, gave Hjerstedt only a heavily redacted copy of its policy. The redactions centered on use-of-force considerations and other strategies.

A police department in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula has been ordered to release its full policy on the use of force after failing to convince the state appeals court that portions should be concealed from the public.