PARLIAMENT | The Home Ministry has maintained that it is wrong for the public to record or live stream police carrying out arrests or raids, adding that body cameras for on-duty use have yet to be procured.
In a written reply to Lim Lip Eng (Pakatan Harapan-Kepong) last Thursday, the ministry said filming an arrest or raid can have action taken against them for obstructing a public officer in carrying out their duties and disrupting investigations.
Police had in 2020 said such actions were an offence under Section 186 of the Penal Code for obstructing a public servant in discharge of his or her public functions.
That year, police arrested former Universiti Malaya Association of New Youth president Wong Yan Ke for recording a police search.
Besides obstruction, the Home Ministry said that recording the police also violated Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) for disturbing others.
As for whether police can seize or go through someone’s phone, the ministry said they can if the phone belongs to someone suspected to be involved in a crime.
The crimes are those under the Penal Code, Section 233 of the CMA, the Sedition Act, Prevention of Terrorism Act, Anti Human Trafficking Act, or the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act.
This means that anyone recording the police can have their phones seized or searched.
On the matter of body cameras, the Home Ministry said that while a budget had been approved, purchases were still being reviewed by the ministry’s procurement division.
The body cameras were supposed to have been procured and put in use in 2021. - Mkini
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