---
type: "Bill"
title: "Law-enforcement civilian oversight bodies; localities may establish, duties, effective date."
description: "Law-enforcement civilian oversight bodies. Authorizes a locality to establish a law-enforcement civilian oversight body that may (i) receive, investigate, and issue findings on complaints from civilians regarding conduct of law-enforcement officers and civilian employees; (ii) investigate and issue findings on incidents, including the use of force by a law-enforcement officer, death or serious injury to any person held in custody, serious abuse of authority or misconduct, allegedly discriminatory stops, and other incidents regarding the conduct of law-enforcement officers or civilian employees; (iii) make binding disciplinary determinations in cases that involve serious breaches of departmental and professional standards; (iv) investigate policies, practices, and procedures of law-enforcement agencies and make recommendations regarding changes to such policies, practices, and procedures; (v) review all investigations conducted internally by law-enforcement agencies and issue findings regarding the accuracy, completeness, and impartiality of such investigations and the sufficiency of any discipline resulting from such investigations; (vi) request reports of the annual expenditures of law-enforcement agencies and make budgetary recommendations; (vii) make public reports on the activities of the law-enforcement civilian oversight body; and (viii) undertake any other duties as reasonably necessary for the law-enforcement civilian oversight body to effectuate its lawful purpose to effectively oversee the law-enforcement agencies as authorized by the locality. Such oversight bodies are not authorized to oversee sheriff's departments. The bill provides that a law-enforcement officer who is subject to a binding disciplinary determination may file a grievance requesting a final hearing pursuant to the locality's local grievance procedures. The bill also provides that a retired law-enforcement officer may serve on such law-enforcement civilian oversight body as an advisory, nonvoting ex officio member. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2021, and is identical to HB 5055."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2020specialI"
identifier: "SB 5035"
citation: "Virginia SB 5035 (2020specialI)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: []
version_count: 6
action_count: 47
vote_count: 10
first_action: "2020-08-14"
last_action: "2020-10-28"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/49231dcb-8844-44b7-867e-a3265498d8d5"
source_url: "https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+sum+SB5035"
source_hash: "1573151b1160fda903c494942eb268656f461702c0f03236a0b989b50cc34fb1"
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-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 5035 (2020specialI) — Law-enforcement civilian oversight bodies; localities may establish, duties, effective date.

Law-enforcement civilian oversight bodies. Authorizes a locality to establish a law-enforcement civilian oversight body that may (i) receive, investigate, and issue findings on complaints from civilians regarding conduct of law-enforcement officers and civilian employees; (ii) investigate and issue findings on incidents, including the use of force by a law-enforcement officer, death or serious injury to any person held in custody, serious abuse of authority or misconduct, allegedly discriminatory stops, and other incidents regarding the conduct of law-enforcement officers or civilian employees; (iii) make binding disciplinary determinations in cases that involve serious breaches of departmental and professional standards; (iv) investigate policies, practices, and procedures of law-enforcement agencies and make recommendations regarding changes to such policies, practices, and procedures; (v) review all investigations conducted internally by law-enforcement agencies and issue findings regarding the accuracy, completeness, and impartiality of such investigations and the sufficiency of any discipline resulting from such investigations; (vi) request reports of the annual expenditures of law-enforcement agencies and make budgetary recommendations; (vii) make public reports on the activities of the law-enforcement civilian oversight body; and (viii) undertake any other duties as reasonably necessary for the law-enforcement civilian oversight body to effectuate its lawful purpose to effectively oversee the law-enforcement agencies as authorized by the locality. Such oversight bodies are not authorized to oversee sheriff's departments. The bill provides that a law-enforcement officer who is subject to a binding disciplinary determination may file a grievance requesting a final hearing pursuant to the locality's local grievance procedures. The bill also provides that a retired law-enforcement officer may serve on such law-enforcement civilian oversight body as an advisory, nonvoting ex officio member. The bill has a delayed effective date of July 1, 2021, and is identical to HB 5055.

## Version chain

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

1. **Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0030)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+CHAP0030)
2. **Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB5035ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+SB5035ER)
3. **Impact statement from DPB (SB5035H1)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+SB5035H1)
4. **Impact statement from DPB (SB5035S1)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+SB5035S1)
5. **Impact statement from DPB (SB5035S2)** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+SB5035S2)
6. **SB5035S3** (committee substitute) — [source](https://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?202+ful+SB5035S3)

## Votes

- Reported from Judiciary with substitute (8-Y 6-N) — **8–6** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Public Safety with substitute (13-Y 9-N) — **13–9** (pass) · lower
- Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N) — **37–0** (pass) · upper
- Conference report agreed to by Senate (21-Y 17-N) — **21–17** (pass) · upper
- Senate acceded to request (22-Y 14-N) — **22–14** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Adoption (51-Y 46-N) — **50–46** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed Senate (20-Y 15-N) — **20–15** (pass) · upper
- House substitute rejected by Senate (1-Y 37-N) — **1–37** (fail) · upper
- Reported from Finance and Appropriations with substitute (11-Y 5-N) — **11–5** (pass) · upper
- VOTE: Agreed To (53-Y 35-N) — **52–35** (pass) · lower

## Timeline

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

- **2020-08-14** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 08/18/20 20200588D `introduction`
- **2020-08-14** Referred to Committee on the Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-08-20** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2020-08-20** Reported from Judiciary with substitute (8-Y 6-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-08-20** Committee substitute printed 20200879D-S1 `substitution`
- **2020-08-20** Rereferred to Finance and Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2020-08-21** Impact statement from DPB (SB5035S1)
- **2020-09-03** Senate committee, floor amendments and substitutes offered
- **2020-09-03** Reported from Finance and Appropriations with substitute (11-Y 5-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-09-03** Committee substitute printed 20201005D-S2 `substitution`
- **2020-09-03** Impact statement from DPB (SB5035S2)
- **2020-09-04** Constitutional reading dispensed (37-Y 0-N)
- **2020-09-10** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-09-10** Committee substitute from Judiciary rejected 20200902D-S1s4410
- **2020-09-10** Committee substitute from Finance and Appropriations agreed to 20201005D-S2
- **2020-09-10** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB5035S2
- **2020-09-15** Read third time and passed Senate (20-Y 15-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2020-09-17** Placed on Calendar
- **2020-09-17** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2020-09-17** Referred to Committee on Public Safety `referral-committee`
- **2020-09-21** Reported from Public Safety with substitute (13-Y 9-N) `committee-passage`
- **2020-09-21** Committee substitute printed 20201228D-H1 `substitution`
- **2020-09-23** Impact statement from DPB (SB5035H1)
- **2020-09-24** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2020-09-25** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2020-09-25** Committee substitute agreed to 20201228D-H1
- **2020-09-25** Engrossed by House - committee substitute SB5035H1
- **2020-09-25** Passed House with substitute (51-Y 46-N) `passage`
- **2020-09-25** VOTE: Adoption (51-Y 46-N)
- **2020-10-02** House substitute rejected by Senate (1-Y 37-N)
- **2020-10-07** House insisted on substitute
- **2020-10-07** House requested conference committee
- **2020-10-07** Senate acceded to request (22-Y 14-N)
- **2020-10-07** Conferees appointed by Senate
- **2020-10-07** Conferees appointed by House
- **2020-10-14** Amended by conference committee
- **2020-10-14** Conference substitute printed 20201370D-S3
- **2020-10-14** Conference report agreed to by Senate (21-Y 17-N)
- **2020-10-14** Conference report agreed to by House (53-Y 35-N)
- **2020-10-14** VOTE: Agreed To (53-Y 35-N)
- **2020-10-16** Enrolled
- **2020-10-16** Signed by President
- **2020-10-16** Signed by Speaker
- **2020-10-19** Impact statement from DPB (SB5035ER)
- **2020-10-21** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on October 21, 2020
- **2020-10-21** Governor's Action Deadline 11:59 p.m., October 28, 2020
- **2020-10-28** Approved by Governor-Chapter 30 (Effective 7/1/21) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/49231dcb-8844-44b7-867e-a3265498d8d5`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).