MICHIGAN — When Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence (D–Southfield) saw the video of the fatal shooting of 26-year-old Patrick Lyoya by a Grand Rapids police officer, she was heartbroken, she said.
“I am fed up with thoughts and prayers and, you know, best wishes and moments of silence,” U.S. Representative Lawrence said during a Zoom interview on Tuesday. “What are we going to do to stop this, what we’re seeing, repeated behavior of police officers?”
Congresswoman Lawrence represents Michigan’s 14th district, which includes Detroit and its surrounding suburbs.
Back on April 4, Lyoya was fatally shot by GRPD Officer Christopher Schurr during a traffic stop near the intersection of Nelson and Griggs. Nine days later, GRPD and the city released videos, including body camera footage, of the deadly shooting.
Representative Lawrence watched them and said as a lawmaker she felt compelled to do something to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
“I’m so excited to introduce the OATH Act. It is a police accountability bill that will increase transparency and training through body-worn body cams,” Representative Lawrence said. “It’ll create the kind of program that makes funding available to local police departments to implement continuous improvement opportunity by using or utilizing the footage for the body cams.”
OATH stands for Officers Accountability Training and Honesty. Last week, on April 28, she introduced it in Washington D.C, telling fellow lawmakers that it’s aimed at using body cameras in police trainings nationwide so cadets can learn proper and effective de-escalation tactics.
“Every day, majority of our police departments are wearing body cams and the only time that we look at them is when something bad has happened,” Representative Lawrence said. “But think about if we took those body cams and utilize them as identifying behavior. That is not acceptable.”
Currently, Representative Lawrence is gathering support for the legislation. As of Wednesday, nine others have co-sponsored it, including Michigan’s own Haley Stevens, who represents District 11.
Representative Lawrence is hoping that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle will see that the legislation — and proper police training — benefits everyone.
“When a police officer pulls over someone, it’s not discussed, ‘Are you Democrat or are you Republican?’” Representative Lawrence said. “So, this is something we should work together in a bipartisan way.”
