Michigan Compiled Laws

Mich. Comp. Laws § 42.12 (2026)

Township police force; establishment; township marshal, appointment; rules; policemen, powers and duties.

✓ current as of July 2026

Find cases: SyfertCases citing this section MI-LEGlegislature.mi.gov JustiaChapter on Justia CornellLII Search CasesGoogle Scholar

THE CHARTER TOWNSHIP ACT

Act 359 of 1947

42.12 Township police force; establishment; township marshal, appointment; rules; policemen, powers and duties.

Sec. 12.

The township board in each charter township may provide for and establish a police force and authorize the supervisor, or the township superintendent if one has been appointed, to appoint, subject to the approval of the said board, a township marshal and such other policemen and watchmen as may be required to protect property and preserve the public welfare and safety in that portion of the township not included within the corporate limits of any village or villages located wholly or in part within the township. No police officer of any such village shall be ineligible for appointment as a member of the township police force, except that no village police officer shall serve as township marshal. The township board shall make all necessary rules for the government of the township police force and its members and shall prescribe the powers and duties of policemen and watchmen, and may invest them with such authority as may be necessary for the preservation of quiet and order and the protection of persons and property within that part of the township not located within the corporate limits of any village.

History: 1947, Act 359, Eff. Oct. 11, 1947 ;-- CL 1948, 42.12

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 5 cases (1 in the last 5 years), 1970–2023 · leading case: Williams v. Cunningham Drug Stores, Inc, 418 N.W.2d 381 (Mich. 1988).

Sort: Relevance Newest Treatment

Williams v. Cunningham Drug Stores, Inc, 418 N.W.2d 381 (Mich. 1988). “45(1) *502 (townships); MCL 42.12; MSA 5.46(12) (charter townships); MCL 67.”

DeGrace v. Shelby Twp. Police & Fire Civil Serv. Comm'n, 389 N.W.2d 137 (Mich. Ct. App. 1986). “The defendants answered that filling the police chief vacancy is discretionary with the board, under MCL 42.12; MSA 5.46(12). The defendants also filed counterclaims seeking a declaratory judgment that the township’s abolition of the police and fire chief positions and…”

Behl v. Gen. Motors, 181 N.W.2d 660 (Mich. Ct. App. 1970). · cites it 2× “First, as observed in 1A Larson’s Workmen’s Compensation Law, § 42.12, p 622.150: *496 “A familiar and understandable condition of many of these provisions is that the damage to the eyeglasses or other device must have coincided with an otherwise compensable accident.”

Rideout v. Shelby Twp. (E.D. Mich. 2023). · cites it 2× “Here, Defendants point to Mich. Comp. Laws § 42.12 , which provides that the “township board shall make all necessary rules for the government of the township police force and its members and shall prescribe the powers and duties of policemen.”

John Trendell v. Mark Hackel (Mich. Ct. App. 2019). “12 provides, in pertinent part: The township board in each charter township may provide for and establish a police force and authorize the supervisor, or the township superintendent if one has been appointed, to appoint, subject to the approval of the said board, a township…”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.