DETROIT — A new bill introduced by State Rep. Rose Mary Robinson (D- Detroit) would require all police officers to wear body cameras. 

“Every law enforcement officer should wear it on duty,” Robinson told The Arab American News. “I am asking the state to mandate it.” 

On Monday, March 23, Robinson held a press conference to introduce the Law Enforcement Body-Worn Camera Act (House Bill 4229) at the Historic King Solomon Church in Detroit. The legislation will require body cameras on police officers and is gaining broad support. 

The bi-partisan bill was introduced last legislative session by term-limited Republican State Representative Tom McMillan.  Robinson co-sponsored the bill.

Rev. Charles E. Williams II of the National Action Network, and pastor of the Historic King Solomon Church, joined Robinson at the press conference in support of the legislation. 

“We will push to put body cameras on police in Michigan and across the nation,” Williams said. “I commend the White House’s support for body cameras and now we are calling on the governor and the state legislature in Michigan to support HB 4229. We must call on the legislatures in all 50 states to step up and enact this key reform in the fight to address excessive police abuse.”

Williams is launching statewide and national campaigns to put body cameras on law enforcement officers in Michigan and across the nation. 

“Putting body cameras on police is a win-win situation for police and citizens,” said Robinson, a Detroit resident for over 50 years who has been active in the fight against police misconduct in Detroit since the 1960s. “It protects citizens from police abuse and protects police from false accusations. We are talking about individual freedom and civil rights. People should be free from excessive police tactics in their day to day activities.”

Robinson’s legislation requires uniformed law enforcement officers to wear a continuously-activated body camera while on duty; protects the rights of privacy of the person recorded; prohibits agencies from using facial recognition programs with the captured images without a warrant and specifies legal presumptions that would apply when images from a camera are not available. 

“I think we should all work together and make it necessary,” she said. 

She also said Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and President Obama have both shown support for the initiative.

“Obama wants to see it happen,” she said. 

Many people have been skeptical about the bill because of the cost associated with making all police wear body cameras.  

“You cannot put a price on what a human life is worth,” Robinson said.

The recent confrontations between police and citizens around the country that have sparked national news are not what triggered Robinson to co-sponsor the legislation or promote it.  She said she co-sponsored the legislation long before the riots last year in Ferguson, MO, following the shooting of an unarmed Black man by a White police officer. She said the Detroit Police Department has a long history of violence against citizens. 

“I had made the observation of tension between Detroit Police and citizens long before Ferguson,” said Robinson, who has been a criminal defense lawyer for 43 years. “It just coincidentally happened now.” 

She said there are provisions in the legislation that insure people’s rights are not violated. 

She also said a lot of people do not know that the Department of Justice monitored and investigated the Detroit Police Department for more than 10 years. 

The investigation began in 2000 in the wake of 47 fatal officer shootings between 1995 and 2000. The city of Detroit entered into an agreement with the Justice Department in 2003 after the government filed a complaint against the city. 

According to a follow-up investigation in 2014, investigators found that the police force was compliant with 90 percent of reforms that were enacted a decade earlier. 

Robinson is currently serving her second term. Her district comprises Hamtramck and portions of Detroit.