How to Get a State-Level Car Accident Report in Alcona County, Michigan

Short answer

For a Michigan UD-10 Traffic Car accident Report, start with the Michigan State Police (MSP) Traffic Car accident Purchasing System (TCPS). MSP says TCPS sells traffic-car accident reports submitted by all Michigan law-enforcement agencies. It is an online, MiLogin-based system, and the stated price is $15 per report. A report is normally available only after the investigating agency has completed and submitted it; MSP says processing into TCPS typically takes 3–30 days, with no mandatory agency submission deadline. MSP’s Traffic Car accident Reporting Unit maintains the statewide car accident-data repository.

If local police, a sheriff, a campus department, a tribal department, or another agency investigated, do not assume the report is lost just because it does not appear right away. First contact the agency that reported the car accident for the case or incident number and report status. MSP identifies that agency as the source for a missing case number and for corrections to a UD-10. Then use that number in TCPS. If you cannot meet TCPS’s search requirements, or if the record is older than the online purchase period, use the MSP public-records route described below.

What to do now

1. Write down the car accident date, the investigating agency, and any case or incident number you received.
2. Wait for the report to reach TCPS. MSP says the usual processing range is 3–30 days; it also says there is no mandatory timeframe for an agency to submit a completed UD-10.
3. Create a MiLogin account and use TCPS to search and purchase the report.
4. Have the required identifiers ready: the car accident date, a driver’s license number or case/incident number, and the date of birth of a person involved.
5. If you do not have the identifiers, contact the reporting agency for the case number. If TCPS still is not an option, submit one written request to MSP through its Records Request Portal or another listed FOIA method.

Keep the downloaded report and any receipt with your other car accident information. The car-accident evidence checklist can help organize the non-report records you already have.

Who reports what in Michigan

Michigan’s rule separates notifying police from the officer’s report. Under MCL 257.622, a driver involved in a car accident that injures or kills someone, or apparently causes $1,000 or more in total property damage, must immediately report it to the nearest or most convenient police station or officer. This is a direction to report the car accident to police; it is not a direction to submit a driver-completed UD-10 to MSP.

The investigating officer completes the UD-10, and the receiving officer or commanding officer forwards the report to the MSP director. MSP describes the UD-10 as the report completed by law enforcement for reportable car accidents and says the Traffic Car accident Reporting Unit cannot file one for a driver. If emergency dispatch is needed at the scene, MSP directs people to call 911. For a car accident that was not reported immediately, MSP says whether a report will be filed is up to the reporting agency; contact the agency for the area where the car accident occurred.

There is a narrower rule for a car accident involving only damage to fixtures legally on or next to a highway. MCL 257.621 directs the driver to take reasonable steps to notify the owner or person in charge and, if the owner cannot be found, to report it to the nearest or most convenient police officer. It also describes an officer-completed report forwarded to MSP.

The official sources reviewed for this page do not establish an insurer-notice deadline, a public-entity notice deadline, a lawsuit deadline, or a separate driver-to-Secretary-of-State car accident-report procedure for obtaining a UD-10. Those subjects should not be inferred from the police-report rule. MSP does say that questions about a driving record belong with the Secretary of State’s Driving Records Activity Unit, rather than the Traffic Car accident Reporting Unit.

Requesting the report through TCPS

TCPS is MSP’s designated online purchase path. MSP says individuals may purchase traffic-car accident reports through the system and explains that it supports both Citizen and Business MiLogin accounts. The agency gives an individual involved in a car accident as an example of Citizen use and an insurance company needing multiple reports as an example of Business use. The system’s search fields—not a statement that every requester is entitled to every report—control the normal online lookup.

To search, TCPS requires all of the following:

• the date of car accident;
• either a driver’s license number or the case/incident number; and
• the date of birth of a person involved in the car accident.

Sign in to TCPS with MiLogin before searching, purchasing, or viewing purchase history. A credit card is required for the $15 purchase. TCPS says the report and receipt are available for immediate download after payment and later through Purchase History; it does not send purchased reports by mail, parcel service, or email.

MSP says a report can be purchased through the Traffic Car accident Reporting Unit for up to 10 years after the car accident. That is an online-purchase availability period, not a statement that the car accident never occurred or that another record cannot be requested after ten years.

If the report is unavailable, delayed, or investigated locally

Start with the agency named as the reporting department. MSP specifically says to contact the reporting law-enforcement agency for the incident/case number; if MSP investigated, contact the MSP post for the county where the car accident occurred. The reporting agency is also the place MSP directs people for a requested correction to the UD-10. Under MCL 257.622, the local police department, sheriff’s department, or local MSP post that made a report must retain a copy for at least three years.

If TCPS returns no report during the usual processing window, confirm with that agency whether a UD-10 was completed and submitted. Do not try to create a report through the Traffic Car accident Reporting Unit: MSP says the unit cannot file one for you. The statewide service covers reports submitted by Michigan law-enforcement agencies, so confirming the investigating agency’s report status is the practical next step when a local responder handled the car accident.

Use an MSP FOIA/public-records request when you lack TCPS’s required search information, when you are the owner of property damaged in the car accident and lack that information, or when the car accident is beyond the ten-year TCPS purchase period. MSP allows a request through its Records Request Portal, email, fax, or mail; submit it by one method only. A written request must describe the record sufficiently. Unlike TCPS’s fixed $15 price, MSP says FOIA fees can vary by record and work required, and the agency may require a payment or deposit. MSP’s FAQ says it issues an initial response within five business days, although that response may be an extension notice rather than the record itself.

Information to gather before requesting

Gather only what the official process calls for, plus enough detail to describe the record if a public-records request is needed:

• car accident date;
• case or incident number, if known;
• driver’s license number for one driver involved, if available for the TCPS search;
• date of birth for a person involved;
• name of the responding or reporting agency and the car accident location; and
• for an MSP public-records request, the requester’s name, mailing address, and a valid phone number or email address.

For a local investigation, ask the responding agency for the case number rather than asking MSP’s Traffic Car accident Reporting Unit to supply personal details or insurance information by phone, email, mail, or fax. MSP says the unit will not release those details through those channels.

Official resources

• Michigan Traffic Car accident Purchasing System (TCPS) — MiLogin purchase service; $15 report price and required search fields.
• MSP Traffic Car accident Reporting Unit — statewide repository information, report-processing range, and filing direction.
• MSP Traffic Car accident Reporting Unit FAQs — case-number, correction, ten-year, and report-filing information.
• MSP public-records / FOIA requests — Records Request Portal plus email, fax, and mail options.
• Michigan Vehicle Code, MCL 257.622 — driver notification and officer-report rule for injury, death, or specified property-damage car accidents.

For more state-by-state procedural material, visit the AccidentFiling.ai guides and resources.

Sources

1. Michigan State Police — Traffic Crash Purchasing System.
2. Michigan State Police — Traffic Crash Reporting Unit FAQs.
3. Michigan State Police — UD-10 Traffic Crash Reporting.
4. Michigan State Police — Freedom of Information Act Requests and FOIA FAQs.
5. Michigan Legislature — MCL 257.622 and MCL 257.621.