Pen. Code, § 146a · Chapter 7. Other Offenses Against Public Justice
Pen. Code, § 146a
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Any person who falsely represents himself or herself to be a deputy or clerk in any state department and who, in that assumed character, does any of the following is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding six months, by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), or both the fine and imprisonment:
(1) Arrests, detains, or threatens to arrest or detain any person.
(2) Otherwise intimidates any person.
(3) Searches any person, building, or other property of any person.
(4) Obtains money, property, or other thing of value.
(b) Any person who falsely represents himself or herself to be a public officer, investigator, or inspector in any state department and who, in that assumed character, does any of the following shall be punished by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, by a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), or by both that fine and imprisonment, or by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170:
(1) Arrests, detains, or threatens to arrest or detain any person.
(2) Otherwise intimidates any person.
(3) Searches any person, building, or other property of any person.
(4) Obtains money, property, or other thing of value.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 256. (AB 109) Effective April 4, 2011. Operative October 1, 2011, by Sec. 636 of Ch. 15, as amended by Stats. 2011, Ch. 39, Sec. 68.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=146a.
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- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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Penal Code
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