LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A new proposal to make Louisville safer has been filed in Metro Council.
Councilmember Jennifer Chappell, D-15, announced Tuesday that she filed "Christopher's Law," to create laws on licensing and training requirements for unarmed security officers and armed security officers.
The proposal was initially spearheaded by Nick Clark in response to the death of his husband, Christopher McKinney.
McKinney was killed in January of 2020 after an altercation with a bouncer at Nowhere Bar in the Highlands. The bouncer later admitted he was under the influence of alcohol and lacked formal security training.
In a statement, Clark said although his husband was fatally injured by a nightclub security guard, "this ordinance goes beyond just nightclub or bar security."
"While standards and training are required for armed security in the city of Louisville, unarmed security is just as important – especially as it relates to bars and nightclubs, where just about anything can happen in an alcohol-driven environment," he said. "Bars that hire unarmed security to protect their patrons should be trained in areas of de-escalation tactics, crowd control, emotional regulation techniques, bomb or armed shooter threats, and more, as research shows that many bars hire security by word of mouth, physical stature or on social media.”
"Nick's passion just oozes outside of him, and this is definitely something that I think that he wants, not only for justice, but also to prevent this from happening to the situation that he's gone through to happening to anyone else, because I think that he really comes from a place of broken heartedness," Chappell said. "I wouldn't wish that heartbreak upon anyone."
The law was first introduced at the state level, and was brought back down to the local Louisville level to include new definitions, licensing, registration, training programs, and penalties.
"We don't want this to be prohibitive on people. We don't want this to be restrictive. We don't want this to equal less security. We just really, again, want to be proactive in making sure that the people that are there to protect us have the knowledge and capabilities to do so," Chappell said. "Louisville Metro already has laws around armed securities and so armed security officers, and so we took that and kind of mirrored it, but we also changed it and made it a little less restrictive in some places, it's going to take a while to build this into the back end of our system."
The ordinance will be housed in the Louisville Metro Code of Ordinances, Chapter 124: Security Officers.
"We hear you when it comes to public safety, and we want to create an environment that is safe for everyone," Chappell said.
"Christopher's Law" will be introduced to the full Metro Council on Thursday, September 26.
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