Occupations: pawnbrokers; certain writings requesting racial identification; modify. Amends sec. 5 of 1917 PA 273 (MCL 446.205).
SB 956 amends Michigan’s pawnbroker licensing law to change the required recordkeeping form used when a pawnbroker receives property by pawn. The bill keeps the existing requirements that pawnbrokers create a permanent transaction record, include identifying information about the customer and the item, and send a copy of the record to local police within 48 hours. It also continues to allow records to be maintained or transmitted electronically if permitted by the local police agency.
The main substantive change is to remove the requirement that the transaction form include a writing requesting the pawner’s race. The bill otherwise preserves the detailed form requirements for describing the item, the customer, and the transaction, including identification information, thumbprint or fingerprint, and other descriptive fields. The bill is tied to a companion enactment clause, meaning it would take effect only if a related bill in the same legislative package is also enacted.
The bill would amend section 5 of the Pawnbrokers Act, MCL 446.205, by eliminating the statutory requirement that pawnbroker transaction records request racial identification. This would change the contents of the mandatory record-of-transaction form used by pawnbrokers statewide, while leaving intact the broader reporting and inspection framework that allows local police, prosecutors, state police, and local attorneys to review pawnbroker records and property. Pawnbrokers would still have to collect and retain the other required customer and item information and submit records to law enforcement within 48 hours.
The available materials do not include committee testimony or recorded votes, so there is no direct evidence of support or opposition in the provided context. Based on the bill text and caption, the measure appears to be a targeted administrative and civil-rights-related cleanup bill focused on removing a race-identification requirement from a regulated business form. The lack of recorded debate or vote history in the provided materials suggests the bill’s sentiment cannot be assessed from legislative proceedings here, though the change itself is likely to be viewed as reducing unnecessary or sensitive data collection.
The likely point of contention is the removal of the race field from the pawnbroker transaction form. Supporters would likely view the change as eliminating an outdated or inappropriate data-collection practice, while opponents, if any, might argue that the information could be useful for law-enforcement tracking or fraud prevention. Because the bill preserves the rest of the reporting system, the dispute is narrowly focused on whether racial identification should remain part of the required paperwork rather than on the overall pawnbroker reporting regime.