---
type: "Bill"
title: "AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES - POLICE AND FIREFIGHTERS RESIDENCY (Prohibits municipal charters and ordinances from requiring that their police officers and firefighters reside within the state of Rhode Island.)"
description: "AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES - POLICE AND FIREFIGHTERS RESIDENCY (Prohibits municipal charters and ordinances from requiring that their police officers and firefighters reside within the state of Rhode Island.)"
jurisdiction: "us/states/ri"
legislature: "Rhode Island General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "HB 5351"
citation: "Rhode Island HB 5351 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Cities & Towns", "Police & Fire", "Municipal Employees"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Bennett", "Canario", "Marshall"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 14
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2017-02-02"
last_action: "2017-07-05"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/8409ae7f-3ae7-43e1-b734-cfa6157caf18"
source_url: "http://status.rilin.state.ri.us/"
source_hash: "b8b6bcc9aa4e3bb3e230cd4727c080f642e725f441415fca77873afd3afc0e00"
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-ri"]
---

# Rhode Island HB 5351 (2017) — AN ACT RELATING TO TOWNS AND CITIES - POLICE AND FIREFIGHTERS RESIDENCY (Prohibits municipal charters and ordinances from requiring that their police officers and firefighters reside within the state of Rhode Island.)

## Version chain

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

1. **5351** (committee substitute) — [source](http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/BillText/BillText17/HouseText17/H5351.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **60–10** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Bennett — primary (person)
- Canario — primary (person)
- Marshall — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2017-02-02** 02/02/2017 Introduced, referred to House Municipal Government `referral-committee, introduction`
- **2017-02-24** 02/24/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (03/02/2017)
- **2017-03-02** 03/02/2017 Committee recommended measure be held for further study
- **2017-03-10** 03/10/2017 Scheduled for consideration (03/16/2017)
- **2017-03-16** 03/16/2017 Committee recommends passage `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-03-17** 03/17/2017 Placed on House Calendar (03/23/2017)
- **2017-03-23** 03/23/2017 House read and passed `passage`
- **2017-05-30** 05/30/2017 Referred to Senate Labor `referral-committee`
- **2017-06-09** 06/09/2017 Scheduled for hearing and/or consideration (06/14/2017)
- **2017-06-14** 06/14/2017 Committee recommends passage in concurrence `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2017-06-22** 06/22/2017 Placed on the Senate Consent Calendar (06/28/2017)
- **2017-06-28** 06/28/2017 Senate passed in concurrence `passage`
- **2017-06-29** 06/29/2017 Transmitted to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2017-07-05** 07/05/2017 Signed by Governor `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/8409ae7f-3ae7-43e1-b734-cfa6157caf18`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Rhode Island legislature records).