Officer Christopher Showalter is headed to a bench trial in Jackson County Circuit Court over the 2024 arrest of bicyclist William Hardy in Kansas City’s Westport entertainment district. Showalter faces a misdemeanor fourth-degree assault charge, and the trial is expected to last two days, The Kansas City Star reported.
The case turns in part on what authority Showalter had while working off-duty security. A Kansas City Police Department policy says an officer working a law-enforcement-related secondary job may enforce federal law, state statutes and municipal ordinances, but may not use police authority to enforce a private employer’s policies or regulations, according to KCPD’s secondary-employment policy. The policy does not, by itself, resolve whether Showalter acted lawfully in Hardy’s case; that remains a question for the criminal and civil proceedings.
Why Westport’s security system matters
Westport’s weekend security arrangement was designed around a designated pedestrian area and private screening. From 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, people entering the area were required to pass through one of four security checkpoints, The Star reported. Kansas City adopted the arrangement after city officials and business owners pursued sidewalk privatization as a way to permit private security screening under Missouri’s restrictions on local firearms regulation, according to Flatland KC.
That setup created a boundary between private security rules and public police authority. Showalter was working off-duty security when he encountered Hardy, but the available policy does not establish whether the officers were enforcing a municipal traffic or public-safety law, a private checkpoint rule, or both. The parties’ competing accounts of where barricades were positioned and whether Hardy entered a restricted area remain unresolved allegations rather than settled facts.
What prosecutors allege
The encounter occurred around 11:30 p.m. on July 6, 2024, near West 40th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue. Hardy’s lawsuit says Showalter pulled him from his bicycle and handcuffed him. Video from the arrest became central to the case; reporting by Atlanta Black Star described footage showing Showalter kneeling on or near Hardy after Hardy had been restrained.
A 2025 grand jury indictment alleges that Showalter attempted to cause physical pain by slamming Hardy’s face or chin against the concrete sidewalk and kneeing him in the face or chin, according to The Star. Those are allegations, and Showalter has not been convicted.
Hardy received stitches for a cut on his chin and later returned to a hospital after an abscess developed at the wound site. He also reported leg injuries and a concussion, The Star reported. The reported injuries describe the consequences alleged by Hardy and his attorneys; the criminal trial will address the elements of the assault charge.
Separate civil and municipal cases
Hardy is also pursuing a civil lawsuit against Showalter, other Kansas City officers and private security firm Chesley Brown International. The suit alleges that the company was responsible for Showalter’s conduct and failed to supervise him while he worked security. KCPD has generally declined to comment on pending litigation, citing fairness to the parties, The Star reported.
The officer’s criminal case also does not automatically dispose of Hardy’s separate municipal matters. As of June 2025, Hardy faced Kansas City citations for resisting arrest and trespassing arising from the same encounter, according to The Star. Those citations and the civil lawsuit proceed separately from the assault prosecution.
Showalter’s Missouri peace officer license is currently inactive, and his attorney said she believed he was on administrative leave from KCPD, according to the current trial-status report. The proceedings will determine how the disputed arrest is treated under criminal law; they will not necessarily answer every broader question about the management of Westport’s private checkpoints or the boundaries of off-duty police work.
