Security Cameras Will Be Mandatory for Michigan Township Businesses

Video surveillance systems will become mandatory April 1 at liquor stores, hotels, banks, pharmacies, gas stations and other businesses with frequent calls to police.

CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A new ordinance that requires business owners here to pay for video surveillance systems is being met with mixed reaction.

Security cameras will become mandatory April 1 at liquor stores, hotels, banks, pharmacies, gas stations and other businesses with frequent calls to police, clickondetroit.com reports.

Business owners will have six months to comply.

“If the retailer cannot afford it, he cannot afford it,” party store owner Norman Manjo told clickondetroit.com. “To make it mandatory, that’s going to be a problem, because that would be a lot of money that they have to dish out.”

The ordinance was organized by Clinton Township police Capt. Richard Merlee.

“I talked to a lot of businesses,” Merlee said. “They want to protect their property.”

Merlee told clickondetroit.com approximately 75% of businesses impacted by the requirements are already in compliance. But not every shop in Clinton Township will have to deploy security cameras.

“We didn’t make this ordinance [to include] the florist, or the breakfast shop, or some little mom and pop business,” Merlee said.

One gas station owner who installed security cameras two decades ago said surveillance does deter crime.


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“It prevents accidents,” Danny Zindani said. “It prevents someone from robbing you. Everybody should have it. That should be mandatory.”

Clinton Township – that state’s most-populated township, with more than 100,000 residents – will be the first in the state to make cameras mandatory.

“It would be nice if they had some kind of program for the small retail that can’t afford it, because you’re kind of [saying], ‘Either you have it, or don’t do business in our city,’” Manjo said.

Merlee explained the idea for mandatory security cameras arose following the murders of two party store owners were solved with the help of surveillance video.

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