LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Inside Golem Security Services, a very specific training is underway. It's the beginning of the end of bad bouncer hires, the CEO hopes.
"A lot of people think unfortunately that in our industry all you need to be is large and aggressive to do your job, and that's just not the case," Golem Security Services CEO David Goad said.
Goad said he designed the class to combat a lack of training in local bars.
"We saw how poor the training was and how people were acting," Goad said. "That hurts not only their company but mine as well because everyone thinks all security is the same."
Nick Clark said that lack of training led to the death of his husband Christopher McKinney in January 2020. One night, a bouncer removed McKinney from the bar and on the way out, the two got into an altercation. The bouncer admitted to punching McKinney one time in the head. McKinney died from the hit.
"With Christopher's incident and all of the other violence that has happened in this area — I feel like now is the time," Clark said.
The training focused heavily on de-escalation and how to remove an unruly customer without using force by redirecting and then resolving the incident.
That kind of intervention is something Clark said could have saved his husband's life and will save someone else.
"If something doesn't change this is just going to happen again," Clark said.
The training was voluntary, but Clark is currently working with local and state lawmakers on new regulations that would require security to be licensed, trained and regulated. Goad said he wants every venue to do through the correct training.
"I want to make sure any venue security, at any bar, any nightclub, any venue period has the correct training to deal with any situation coming out of it," Goad said.
Clark said he hopes creating "Christopher's Law" will prevent incidents like the one that killed McKinney from happening, and create enforcement to hold bars and bouncers accountable with something does go wrong.
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