Lovelady bouncer bill passes Iowa Senate

BY JENNIFER JACOBS • REGISTER STAFF WRITER • APRIL 23, 2008

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High-occupancy bars in Polk County would have to train at least one bouncer in anger management and techniques for safely removing people under a proposal state lawmakers are considering.

Lawmakers have been trying for eight years to pass legislation in response to the death of Charles Lovelady, a 26-year-old who died in 2000 after a scuffle with two bouncers at a Des Moines nightclub.

Today, the Iowa Senate voted 33-12 to approve House File 901. The bill now goes to the Iowa House for more consideration.

The bill would start a pilot project in Polk County that applies to only large taverns – namely those that can hold 200 people or more, said Sen. Bill Dotzler, a Democrat from Waterloo.

“It’s unfortunate that we lost a young man in a situation I think that would’ve been preventable if we would’ve had the proper education techniques,” Dotzler said.

Any time the bar is holding an event where it charges an admission fee of $5 or more, and when alcohol is being served, at least one person trained in special security techniques would have to be working.

The bill calls on the Iowa Workforce Development’s division of labor services to create an eight-hour training program.

The training would have to include techniques for safely removing people, de-escalation, use of force, anger management, civil rights, recognition of a fake ID and other topics. Lawmakers intend to set aside $15,000 to start up the training program. Training would cost no more than $50 per person.

Security guards who are certified police officers wouldn’t be required to take the training program through the labor services division.

After Lovelady’s death, the city of Des Moines enacted an ordinance requiring bouncers to undergo training.

The Polk County pilot project would start Jan. 1, 2009 and would end June 30, 2011.

The labor services division and state alcoholic beverages division would have to give lawmakers a report on the effectiveness of the program by January 2011.

“Then we can determine if this is the type of thing that really has value,” Dotzler said.

Lawmakers credited the success of the bill to Rep. Wayne Ford, a Democrat from Des Moines, who has fought passionately for it since Lovelady’s death.

Another bill Ford pushed, which would have made it a crime for bars or other businesses to refuse to serve customers based upon the brand of clothing they wore, stalled in the Iowa House this year and is unlikely to become law.