---
type: "Bill"
title: "Rights of professional firefighters."
description: "Provides that a full-time, paid, nonprobationary firefighter has certain minimum protections in addition to any protections provided by contract or other law with regard to the following: (1) The conduct of an interview of the firefighter by the fire department (department) regarding a complaint or internal investigation. (2) The giving of notice by the department to the firefighter of a personnel reassignment, personnel action, or disciplinary action. (3) The disclosure of the firefighter's personal financial information for purposes of a personnel assignment or action. (4) The firefighter's engagement in or refusal to engage in political activity. (Currently these statutes apply only to police officers and police departments.) Repeals a provision that makes the provisions applicable only to police officers."
jurisdiction: "us/states/in"
legislature: "Indiana General Assembly"
session: "2020"
identifier: "HB 1015"
citation: "Indiana HB 1015 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["FIREFIGHTERS; FIREFIGHTERS' PENSIONS AND BENEFITS"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Jack Sandlin", "Jim Pressel", "Mike Bohacek"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 24
vote_count: 2
first_action: "2020-01-16"
last_action: "2020-03-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/d0fbae3b-a7f8-4af0-91cb-e3aa8de8131b"
source_url: "http://iga.in.gov/legislative/2020/bills/house/1015"
source_hash: "e09327610858369ce48c0574877ccad04bbd9b39ed851feca84f3a030975ce41"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-in"]
---

# Indiana HB 1015 (2020) — Rights of professional firefighters.

Provides that a full-time, paid, nonprobationary firefighter has certain minimum protections in addition to any protections provided by contract or other law with regard to the following: (1) The conduct of an interview of the firefighter by the fire department (department) regarding a complaint or internal investigation. (2) The giving of notice by the department to the firefighter of a personnel reassignment, personnel action, or disciplinary action. (3) The disclosure of the firefighter's personal financial information for purposes of a personnel assignment or action. (4) The firefighter's engagement in or refusal to engage in political activity. (Currently these statutes apply only to police officers and police departments.) Repeals a provision that makes the provisions applicable only to police officers.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Enrolled House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/HB1015/versions/HB1015.04.ENRS)
2. **House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/HB1015/versions/HB1015.03.COMS)
3. **House Bill (S)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/HB1015/versions/HB1015.02.COMH)
4. **Introduced House Bill (H)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://in-proxy.openstates.org/2020/bills/HB1015/versions/HB1015.01.INTR)

## Votes

- HB 1015 - Pressel - 3rd Reading — **90–0** (pass) · lower
- HB 1015 - Sandlin - 3rd Reading — **50–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Jack Sandlin — primary (person)
- Jim Pressel — primary (person)
- Mike Bohacek — primary (person)
- David Niezgodski — cosponsor (person)
- J.D. Prescott — coauthor (person)
- John Crane — cosponsor (person)
- Jon Ford — cosponsor (person)
- Karen Tallian — cosponsor (person)
- Lonnie Randolph — cosponsor (person)
- Pat Boy — coauthor (person)
- Randall Frye — coauthor (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2020-01-16** Authored by Representative Pressel
- **2020-01-16** First reading: referred to Committee on Veterans Affairs and Public Safety `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2020-01-21** Representative Frye added as coauthor
- **2020-01-28** Committee report: do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2020-01-30** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2020-01-30** Representatives Prescott and Boy added as coauthors
- **2020-02-03** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 152: yeas 90, nays 0 `reading-3, passage`
- **2020-02-03** Senate sponsors: Senators Sandlin and Bohacek
- **2020-02-04** Referred to the Senate
- **2020-02-18** First reading: referred to Committee on Pensions and Labor `reading-1, referral-committee`
- **2020-02-27** Committee report: do pass, adopted `committee-passage`
- **2020-02-27** Senator Niezgodski added as cosponsor
- **2020-02-27** Senator Tallian added as cosponsor
- **2020-03-02** Second reading: ordered engrossed `reading-2`
- **2020-03-02** Senator Randolph added as cosponsor
- **2020-03-03** Third reading: passed; Roll Call 274: yeas 50, nays 0 `reading-3, passage`
- **2020-03-03** Senator Crane added as cosponsor
- **2020-03-03** Senator Ford Jon added as cosponsor
- **2020-03-04** Signed by the Speaker
- **2020-03-04** Returned to the House without amendments
- **2020-03-09** Signed by the President Pro Tempore
- **2020-03-11** Signed by the President of the Senate
- **2020-03-14** Signed by the Governor `executive-signature`
- **2020-03-30** Public Law 33

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/d0fbae3b-a7f8-4af0-91cb-e3aa8de8131b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Indiana legislature records).