A Christmas Eve threat continues security for KY Attorney General Daniel Cameron
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron had hoped to end a $300,000 state contract to provide around-the-clock security for him on December 30 but a Christmas Eve threat forced him to reconsider.
The legislature’s Government Contract Review Committee unanimously approved Tuesday a new contract up to $300,000 for a 24/7 armed security detail to protect the state’s chief law-enforcement official.
The first $300,000 contract started Aug. 26 and ran until the end of 2020. It was with several law-enforcement officials. The new contract is with the police department of Graymoor-Devondale, a city in Jefferson County, and will run through June 30.
Greg Wolfe, Cameron’s criminal investigations commissioner, told the review committee the contract extension was needed after Cameron had to leave his Louisville residence Christmas Eve when it was learned that a caravan of protesters was coming to his home and neighborhood to start a fire.
“We are hopeful that things will calm down,” Wolf told the committee after chairman Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, asked how long the contract might need to continue.
“I hope this will but I’m not optimistic in the near future,” said Meredith. He asked Wolf if lawmakers should add money to the state budget they are working on for the state police to perform this service.
Wolf said state police were asked to provide security but it does not have the manpower to do so.
The need for security for the state’s top law-enforcement official began last year after Cameron allegedly received a death threat through a phone line dedicated to the Breonna Taylor case at his office. Taylor was a Black woman who was killed during a police search at her Louisville apartment last March.
Wesley Forrest Clay, 29, of Olathe, Kansas, has been charged with making a threat through interstate communications, according to court records..”
Cameron has also been publicly scrutinized by celebrities, protesters, faith leaders and others since his office’s investigation into Breonna Taylor’s death. The investigation resulted in charges for only one of the officers who fired shots at or in Taylor’s apartment the night she died.
Cameron has previously said that his critics are “cherry-picking facts” and that he’s just trying to do his job.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 12:04 PM.
