Kentucky lawmakers are renewing their push for a statewide domestic violence public registry, with a revised bill set for the 2027 legislative session that would flag repeat offenders on dating apps and in a searchable public database while keeping first-time convictions hidden from public view. The proposal comes days after 34-year-old Lexington resident Candice Mackie was fatally stabbed by an ex-boyfriend who rammed a FedEx delivery truck through her home's garage on September 3, a killing that happened while an unserved arrest warrant from a July domestic violence incident was still pending against the suspect.
Rep. Kim Holloway, who represents Mayfield, plans to reintroduce the bill after a previous version, House Bill 773, failed to gain traction during the last legislative session, according to WLKY. Holloway said people should be able to make informed decisions about who they allow into their lives and homes, per the station's report. Under the revised proposal, a first qualifying conviction would be stored for five years and accessible only to law enforcement, while public disclosure would begin only upon repeat convictions — spanning seven years for two convictions, 10 years for three, and 20 years for four, according to The Lexington Times.
What the Bill Would Require of Dating Apps
Online dating services operating in Kentucky would be required to conduct criminal background checks and flag user profiles carrying qualifying domestic violence convictions, per the same account. Those platforms would also be required to post a link to the registry itself, per WLKY's reporting. The proposal would shield offenders' home addresses, Social Security numbers, and driver's license numbers from the public database, and the revised version now includes data collection on how the registry affects domestic violence reporting and prosecution, as well as how frequently the database itself gets accessed.
The proposed registry would include repeat offenders' names, photos, and conviction information, the station notes. Kentucky saw increases in domestic violence arrests, reports, and homicides last year, according to WLKY, a trend that state figures help illustrate: Kentucky law enforcement agencies filed 33,786 electronic JC-3 domestic violence reports statewide and made 8,301 arrests for incidents involving domestic or dating violence in 2025, according to the Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet. According to the Kentucky Justice & Public Safety Cabinet's 2024 Domestic Violence Data Report, 7,964 arrests resulted from cases in which a domestic/dating violence JC-3 was filed, a 2.64% increase from the 7,759 arrests made in CY 2023.
Tennessee's Registry as the National Model
Tennessee is described by WLKY as the only state with an established domestic violence registry, while The Lexington Times reports that Tennessee became the first state in the nation to establish a public domestic violence offender registry when Savanna's Law took effect on January 1, 2026, creating a searchable Tennessee Bureau of Investigation online database for individuals with two or more qualifying domestic abuse convictions, according to Davis & Hoss, PC. That law was named in honor of 22-year-old Robertson County Sheriff's Deputy Savanna Puckett, who was shot to death in her home in 2022 by an ex-boyfriend whose previous history of domestic violence and stalking was not publicly accessible, according to WBIR.
Kentucky ranks second in the nation for the prevalence of domestic violence, WLKY reports, a standing corroborated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, which found approximately 45.3% of adult women in the state have experienced physical violence, sexual violence, or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime, according to WKMS.
Survivors and Advocates Push Back on Both Sides
Mary Ann Pratt, a domestic violence survivor who helped pass House Bill 38, said there are domestic violence cases throughout eastern Kentucky, western Kentucky, Louisville, and Lexington, according to WLKY. Pratt also supports a possible GPS monitoring program for domestic violence victims, the station reports. House Bill 38, signed in 2025, changed a third protective-order violation from a Class A misdemeanor to a possible felony, according to prior Hoodline reporting.
In Paducah, Danny Carroll voiced support for using tools to curb domestic violence, per WLKY. But not everyone is convinced a public registry is the right tool. Stephanie Dietz questioned whether the registry could create a false sense of security, the station notes, echoing broader concerns raised by advocacy groups about unintended consequences for domestic violence victims, including the risk of retaliation. ZeroV, the statewide coalition representing Kentucky's 15 regional domestic violence programs, has formally opposed registry legislation like House Bill 773, warning that public databases can create a false sense of security because most abusers are never criminally convicted, and flagging the risk of abuser retaliation against victims, according to WDRB.
A Case That Exposes the Limits of Any Database
The killing of Candice Mackie underscores a gap that no registry, public or otherwise, can close on its own. Mackie was stabbed to death by her ex-boyfriend, who drove a FedEx truck through her Lexington home, according to WLKY, and the arrest warrant tied to his July domestic violence incident had reportedly not yet been served at the time of her death, per WHAS11. Existing Kentucky law already treats some domestic offenses harshly: under House Bill 5, the Safer Kentucky Act that took effect in July 2024, individuals convicted of violent domestic crimes such as first-degree strangulation or first-degree assault are designated as violent offenders and must serve at least 85% of their prison sentences before becoming eligible for parole, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage.
Holloway's revised proposal attempts to bridge these competing concerns by relying only on proven criminal convictions — excluding arrests and protective orders alone — and by restricting first-time convictions to law enforcement access, rather than making them public immediately. Whether that compromise satisfies survivors like Pratt, skeptics like Dietz, or advocacy coalitions like ZeroV remains to be seen when Kentucky lawmakers take up the bill in the 2027 session.
