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Pen. Code, § 538g · Chapter 8. False Personation and Cheats

Pen. Code, § 538g

Verbatim from the official edition

Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)

(a) Any person, other than a state, county, city, special district, or city and county officer or employee, who willfully wears, exhibits, or uses the authorized badge, photographic identification card, or insignia of a state, county, city, special district, or city and county officer or employee, with the intent of fraudulently personating a state, county, city, special district, or city and county officer or employee, or of fraudulently inducing the belief that they are a state, county, city, special district, or city and county officer or employee, or who willfully and credibly impersonates such an officer or member on an internet website, by other electronic means, or by any other means, for purposes of defrauding another, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

(b) Any person who willfully wears, exhibits, or uses, or willfully makes, sells, loans, gives, or transfers to another, any badge, photographic identification card, or insignia, which falsely purports to be for the use of a state, county, city, special district, or city and county officer or employee, or which so resembles the authorized badge, photographic identification card, or insignia of a state, county, city, special district, or city and county officer or employee as would deceive an ordinary reasonable person into believing that it is authorized for use by a state, county, city, special district, or city and county officer or employee, is guilty of a misdemeanor, except that any person who makes or sells any badge under the circumstances described in this subdivision is subject to a fine not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000).

(c) This section shall not apply to either of the following:

(1) Use of a badge solely as a prop for a motion picture, television, or video production, or an entertainment or theatrical event.

(2) A badge supplied by a recognized employee organization as defined in Section 3501 of the Government Code or a state or international organization to which it is affiliated.

Notes and commentary — not statutory text

History

Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 126, Sec. 6. (SB 805) Effective September 20, 2025.

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&sectionNum=538g.
Text hash
sha256 03c9d25257f61e2d94d7305c728b119c7322a66aeb6890b8d5bf323db34f40ee
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.

Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.