---
type: "Bill"
title: "Law-Enforcement Officers Procedural Guarantee Act; amends definition of law-enforcement officer."
description: "Law-Enforcement Officers Procedural Guarantee Act; amends definition of law-enforcement officer."
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2019"
identifier: "HB 2656"
citation: "Virginia HB 2656 (2019)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Commonwealth Public Safety", "Police"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Christopher E. Collins"]
version_count: 3
action_count: 16
vote_count: 7
first_action: "2019-01-11"
last_action: "2019-03-18"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/fc2189f0-ce20-484f-8860-6918400f7021"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+sum+HB2656"
source_hash: "270d72227e6547427b10d1f6c0ccc2fd6096ef709adcbbc68f6b27e5a65a5c47"
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 HB 2656 (2019) — Law-Enforcement Officers Procedural Guarantee Act; amends definition of law-enforcement officer.

## Version chain

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

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0489)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+CHAP0489)
2. **House: Bill text as passed House and Senate (HB2656ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2656ER)
3. **House: Presented and ordered printed 19103856D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?191+ful+HB2656)

## Votes

- Reported from General Laws and Technology — **15–0** (pass) · upper
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Reported from Appropriations — **22–0** (pass) · lower
- Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · lower
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · upper
- Rereferred from Fin. — **12–0** (pass) · upper
- Subcommittee recommends reporting — **6–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Christopher E. Collins — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2019-01-11** Presented and ordered printed 19103856D `introduction`
- **2019-01-11** Referred to Committee on Appropriations `referral-committee`
- **2019-01-15** Assigned App. sub: Public Safety `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-01** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2019-02-04** Read second time and engrossed `reading-2`
- **2019-02-05** Read third time and passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage, reading-3`
- **2019-02-06** Constitutional reading dispensed
- **2019-02-06** Referred to Committee on Finance `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-12** Rereferred to General Laws and Technology `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-20** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2019-02-22** Enrolled
- **2019-02-22** Signed by Speaker
- **2019-02-22** Signed by President
- **2019-03-04** Enrolled Bill communicated to Governor on March 4, 2019
- **2019-03-04** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 26, 2019
- **2019-03-18** Approved by Governor-Chapter 489 (effective 7/1/19) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/fc2189f0-ce20-484f-8860-6918400f7021`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).