Pen. Code, § 148.5 · Chapter 7. Other Offenses Against Public Justice
Pen. Code, § 148.5
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) Every person who reports to any peace officer listed in Section 830.1 or 830.2, or subdivision (a) of Section 830.33, the Attorney General, or a deputy attorney general, or a district attorney, or a deputy district attorney that a felony or misdemeanor has been committed, knowing the report to be false, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(b) Every person who reports to any other peace officer, as defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2, that a felony or misdemeanor has been committed, knowing the report to be false, is guilty of a misdemeanor if (1) the false information is given while the peace officer is engaged in the performance of his or her duties as a peace officer and (2) the person providing the false information knows or should have known that the person receiving the information is a peace officer.
(c) Except as provided in subdivisions (a) and (b), every person who reports to any employee who is assigned to accept reports from citizens, either directly or by telephone, and who is employed by a state or local agency which is designated in Section 830.1, 830.2, subdivision (e) of Section 830.3, Section 830.31, 830.32, 830.33, 830.34, 830.35, 830.36, 830.37, or 830.4, that a felony or misdemeanor has been committed, knowing the report to be false, is guilty of a misdemeanor if (1) the false information is given while the employee is engaged in the performance of his or her duties as an agency employee and (2) the person providing the false information knows or should have known that the person receiving the information is an agency employee engaged in the performance of the duties described in this subdivision.
(d) Every person who makes a report to a grand jury that a felony or misdemeanor has been committed, knowing the report to be false, is guilty of a misdemeanor. This subdivision shall not be construed as prohibiting or precluding a charge of perjury or contempt for any report made under oath in an investigation or proceeding before a grand jury.
(e) This section does not apply to reports made by persons who are required by statute to report known or suspected instances of child abuse, dependent adult abuse, or elder abuse.
(f) This section applies to a person who reports to a person described in subdivision (a), (b), or (c), that a firearm, as defined in subdivision (a) or (b) of Section 16520, has been lost or stolen, knowing the report to be false.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 2016, Ch. 47, Sec. 1. (AB 1695) Effective January 1, 2017.
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=148.5.
- Text hash
- sha256 c1e639f62801bfd63cd7fcb4d15227d34cab32eb81a911435590c3c430db54c2
- Composed by
- 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
This section cites
Provisions in this library that the text above cites, as it prints each citation. A range cited as “ss. 61.13-61.16” links its first and last provisions.
Penal Code
- Pen. Code, pt. 2, tit. 3, ch. 4.5Peace OfficersPrinted as Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2
- Pen. Code, § 830.1Printed as Section 830.1 or 830.2 | Section 830.1, 830.2
- Pen. Code, § 830.2Printed as Section 830.1 or 830.2 | Section 830.1, 830.2
- Pen. Code, § 830.3Printed as Section 830.3
- Pen. Code, § 830.31Printed as Section 830.31, 830.32, 830.33, 830.34, 830.35, 830.36, 830.37, or 830.4
- Pen. Code, § 830.32Printed as Section 830.31, 830.32, 830.33, 830.34, 830.35, 830.36, 830.37, or 830.4
- Pen. Code, § 830.33Printed as Section 830.31, 830.32, 830.33, 830.34, 830.35, 830.36, 830.37, or 830.4 | Section 830.33
- Pen. Code, § 830.34Printed as Section 830.31, 830.32, 830.33, 830.34, 830.35, 830.36, 830.37, or 830.4
- Pen. Code, § 830.35Printed as Section 830.31, 830.32, 830.33, 830.34, 830.35, 830.36, 830.37, or 830.4
- Pen. Code, § 830.36Printed as Section 830.31, 830.32, 830.33, 830.34, 830.35, 830.36, 830.37, or 830.4
- Pen. Code, § 830.37Printed as Section 830.31, 830.32, 830.33, 830.34, 830.35, 830.36, 830.37, or 830.4
- Pen. Code, § 830.4Printed as Section 830.31, 830.32, 830.33, 830.34, 830.35, 830.36, 830.37, or 830.4
- Pen. Code, § 16520Printed as Section 16520
Cited by 1 provision
Provisions in this library whose text cites Pen. Code, § 148.5. Each shows the citation as that text prints it.
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