---
type: "Bill"
title: "Authorizing municipalities to take action to grant certain fire department employees limited power of arrest"
description: "Authorizing municipalities to take action to grant certain fire department employees limited power of arrest"
jurisdiction: "us/states/wv"
legislature: "West Virginia Legislature"
session: "2020"
identifier: "HB 4715"
citation: "West Virginia HB 4715 (2020)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Municipalities"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Capito"]
version_count: 4
action_count: 40
vote_count: 3
first_action: "2020-02-06"
last_action: "2020-04-15"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/62676272-7a5b-4f5e-b8bf-c33721fae3bb"
source_url: "http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/Bills_history.cfm?input=4715&year=2020&sessiontype=RS&btype=bill"
source_hash: "c4532bde675507ee09293853621d8f62546722e9de6f09f14ad8ae908ced88e4"
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-wv"]
---

# West Virginia HB 4715 (2020) — Authorizing municipalities to take action to grant certain fire department employees limited power of arrest

## Version chain

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

1. **Enrolled Version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB4715%20ENR.htm&yr=2020&sesstype=RS&i=4715)
2. **HB4715 S JUD AM _1 adopted.htm** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/legisdocs/chamber/2020/RS/com_amends/HB4715 S JUD AM _1 adopted.htm)
3. **HB4715 S JUD AMT _1 3-3 adopted.htm** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/legisdocs/chamber/2020/RS/com_amends/HB4715 S JUD AMT _1 3-3 adopted.htm)
4. **Introduced Version** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=HB4715%20INTR.htm&yr=2020&sesstype=RS&i=4715)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **96–1** (pass) · lower
- Passage — **34–0** (pass) · upper
- PASSAGE-SENATE AMENDED HB — **99–0** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Capito — primary (person)
- Bartlett — cosponsor (person)
- Byrd — cosponsor (person)
- Estep-Burton — cosponsor (person)
- Jeffries, D. — cosponsor (person)
- Nelson — cosponsor (person)
- Pushkin — cosponsor (person)
- Robinson — cosponsor (person)
- Rowe — cosponsor (person)
- Skaff — cosponsor (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2020-02-06** Filed for introduction `filing`
- **2020-02-06** To Political Subdivisions then Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-06** Introduced in House `introduction`
- **2020-02-06** To House Political Subdivisions `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-17** Do pass, but first to Judiciary
- **2020-02-17** To House Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-20** Do pass
- **2020-02-21** On 1st reading, Special Calendar
- **2020-02-21** Read 1st time `reading-1`
- **2020-02-24** On 2nd reading, Special Calendar
- **2020-02-24** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2020-02-25** On 3rd reading, Special Calendar
- **2020-02-25** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2020-02-25** Passed House (Roll No. 319) `passage`
- **2020-02-25** Communicated to Senate
- **2020-02-26** Introduced in Senate `introduction`
- **2020-02-26** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-02-26** To Judiciary `referral-committee`
- **2020-03-04** Reported do pass, with amendment and title amendment `committee-passage`
- **2020-03-04** Immediate consideration
- **2020-03-04** Read 1st time `reading-1`
- **2020-03-05** On 2nd reading
- **2020-03-05** Read 2nd time `reading-2`
- **2020-03-05** Committee amendment adopted (Voice vote)
- **2020-03-06** On 3rd reading
- **2020-03-06** Read 3rd time `reading-3`
- **2020-03-06** Passed Senate with amended title (Roll No. 512) `passage`
- **2020-03-06** Senate requests House to concur
- **2020-03-07** House received Senate message
- **2020-03-07** House concurred in Senate amendment and passed bill (Roll No. 718)
- **2020-03-07** Communicated to Senate
- **2020-03-07** Completed legislative action
- **2020-03-07** House Message received
- **2020-03-07** To Governor 3/17/20 - Senate Journal `executive-receipt`
- **2020-03-07** To Governor 3/17/20 - House Journal `executive-receipt`
- **2020-03-17** To Governor 3/17/20 `executive-receipt`
- **2020-03-07** Approved by Governor 3/25/20 - House Journal
- **2020-03-25** Approved by Governor 3/25/20 `executive-signature`
- **2020-03-07** Approved by Governor 3/25/20 - Senate Journal
- **2020-04-15** Chapter 301, Acts, Regular Session, 2020

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/62676272-7a5b-4f5e-b8bf-c33721fae3bb`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official West Virginia legislature records).