This is extremely scary, as there have been a lot of cases where nomal civilians have been terrorised by scammers dressed up as policemen.
So, if you're ever stopped by a policeman, the smart thing to do is to ask the abang polis to identify himself.
We know what you're thinking; are you allowed to ask a policeman for his authority card?
A local judge may have just given us the definite answer to that.
It's written in the law books
According to a report by Free Malaysia Today, it is defnitely NOT against the law to ask a policeman to identify himself.
This was confirmed by Judge Mohd Yazid Mustafa during a recent court case involving a man who was cleared on charges of obstructing a policeman under Section 186 of the Penal Code.
According to Mohd Yazid, the Police Regulations 1952 made it very clear that police officers must first reveal their identity and rank before performing their duties.
As such, a civilian asking for a proof of identity does not qualify as preventing the officer from carrying out his duty.
“One cannot be said to have committed the offence (obstructing a civil servant from carrying out his duty) just because a member of the public had requested for the authority card of a policeman,” he was quoted by the news portal as saying.
Lawyer Jeyaseelan Anthony also told the news portal that Regulation 26 of the Police Regulations 1952 states that a policeman must not conceal his identity as a public servant, and Regulation 39 further states that a policeman cannot refuse a civilian's request to show his authority card.
On top of that, Anthony further added that plainclothes policemen are obliged to reveal that he was a public servant before discharging his duty.
“A policeman’s authority as a public servant is derived from the authority card,” he was quoted as saying.
There you have it, folks! It is completely within the law to ask a policeman to show you his authority card.
Like they say, it's better to be safe than sorry, kan?