HB 333 Montana House · 2025 Regular Session

Generally revise local law enforcement laws

HB 333 revises local law enforcement regulations for cities and towns in Montana. It requires every city and town to maintain a police department, allowing third-class cities or towns to instead contract with another local law enforcement agency. If a city or town does not have its own department or a contract, the county sheriff is required to provide law enforcement services, and the city or town must pay for these services. The bill establishes a dispute resolution process for pricing disagreements between cities/towns and sheriffs, involving moderation and potential binding arbitration.

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Jan 2025

Committee Review

Apr 2025

House Passage

Apr 2025

Senate Passage

Apr 2025

Signed into Law

May 2025

Introduced Jan 28, 2025 Signed May 5, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 3 comparisons

What changed between versions

HB0333_2(11).pdf → HB0333_X.pdf · 3 edits

MINOR

The bill was converted from a draft version to an enrolled, enacted law, adding official signatures and certification. Substantively, the text contains several drafting errors where words were accidentally repeated (e.g., 'There there shall must be'), but the core policy requirements regarding police department organization, sheriff agreements, and dispute resolution remain the same as the original draft.

TECHNICAL

Corrected formatting and removed draft headers/footers to reflect the final enrolled bill status.

Fixed text errors where words were accidentally duplicated or capitalized incorrectly (e.g., 'There there shall must be', 'COUNTY, THE sheriff OF WHICH').

Added official certification signatures for the House Chief Clerk, Speaker of the House, and President of the Senate.

Floor votes · Senate Apr 9, 2025 · House Feb 18, 2025

How they voted

44–5

Passed · 1 other

Total votes 50

Apr 9, 2025

D Democratic18

18 Yea

100% Yea

R Republican32

26 Yea 5 Nay 1

81% Yea

Vote distribution

All Yea All Nay Mixed No data

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

May 1, 2025

Signed into law

(H) Signed by Governor

lower

Apr 22, 2025

Upper · Passed

(S) Signed by President

upper

Apr 18, 2025

Lower · Passed

(H) Signed by Speaker

lower

Apr 9, 2025

Senate · Passed

Senate Vote: pass (44-5-1)

senate

Apr 1, 2025

Upper · Passed

(S) Committee Report - (S) Local Government

upper

Mar 31, 2025

Upper · Passed

(S) Committee Executive Action - (S) Local Government

upper

Mar 19, 2025

Committee

(S) Referred to Committee - (S) Local Government

upper

Feb 18, 2025

House · Passed

House Vote: pass (99-0-1)

house

Feb 7, 2025

Lower · Passed

(H) Committee Report - (H) Local Government

lower

Feb 6, 2025

Lower · Passed

(H) Committee Executive Action - (H) Local Government

lower

Jan 29, 2025

Committee

(H) Referred to Committee - (H) Local Government

lower

Jan 28, 2025

Introduced

(H) Introduced

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors