Pen. Code, § 636.5 · Chapter 1.5. Invasion of Privacy
Pen. Code, § 636.5
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
Any person not authorized by the sender, who intercepts any public safety radio service communication, by use of a scanner or any other means, for the purpose of using that communication to assist in the commission of a criminal offense or to avoid or escape arrest, trial, conviction, or punishment or who divulges to any person he or she knows to be a suspect in the commission of any criminal offense, the existence, contents, substance, purport, effect or meaning of that communication concerning the offense with the intent that the suspect may avoid or escape from arrest, trial, conviction, or punishment is guilty of a misdemeanor.
Nothing in this section shall preclude prosecution of any person under Section 31 or 32.
As used in this section, “public safety radio service communication” means a communication authorized by the Federal Communications Commission to be transmitted by a station in the public safety radio service.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Amended by Stats. 1999, Ch. 853, Sec. 13. Effective January 1, 2000.
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=636.5.
- Text hash
- sha256 02d5d39e878378626ae75a01325cd92f6d2e8eb550ed9fb67c1443c90db971a3
- 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.