Motor City Muckraker files FOIA lawsuit against Detroit over hydrant records

“The city failed to meet its burden of showing a real threat to security that would justify withholding the records,” Simpson said, pointing out in the lawsuit that even the city’s FOIA attorney acknowledged that the locations of broken hydrants in 2014 would “only capture the status of the fire hydrants for the date reflected on the report” and therefore “do not necessarily provide an accurate count of non-functioning fire hydrants” or those hydrants that “were repaired by DWSD.”

Click here to read the lawsuit. 

“The Michigan Freedom of Information Act is a manifestation of this state’s public policy favoring public access to government information, recognizing the need that citizens be informed as they participate in democratic governance, and the need that public officials be held accountable for the manner in which they perform their duties,” Simpson said.

Motor City Muckraker launched a series in March about an alarming number of broken hydrants that were jeopardizing lives and property. Numerous occupied houses burned to the ground because firefighters struggled to find working hydrants.

The series prompted the administration to call for an inspection of the city’s 30,000 hydrants and change how the fire plugs are reported.

Last month, the city maintained it knew about just 70 broken hydrants, a mere fraction of the real number.

The city has several weeks to respond to the FOIA suit, which was filed Friday.