AskLegal.my
Dealing with the police

Can you record PDRM when they stop you? Yes — but there's a catch nobody warns you about

9 min read

You're pulled over at a roadblock at 11pm. Something feels off about how the conversation is going. Your phone is in the cup holder. Do you press record?

Yes, you can. There is no Malaysian law prohibiting you from recording police officers performing their duties in public. Malaysia's Criminal Investigation Department director has acknowledged that recording police on duty is lawful. The Malaysian Bar has stated there's no offence in recording police conducting a raid. Suaram has said the same about roadblocks.

And yet people have been arrested for it. Which is the part you actually need to understand, because "it's legal" and "you won't have a bad night" are not the same sentence in this country.

Recording police in public is lawful — no statute bans it. The risk isn't the recording itself; it's section 186 of the Penal Code (obstructing a public servant), which has been used against people who kept recording after being told to stop. Civil society argues that's an improper use of section 186 since the underlying act is legal, but that argument is one you'd be making from a police station. Record calmly, from a distance, without interfering — and know what to do when you're told to stop.

1. Why it's legal

Start from first principles. Malaysia has no general law preventing you from photographing or filming another person in a public place. There are limits — obscene material, content that damages reputation — but the baseline is that public filming isn't prohibited.

Police officers don't get a special exemption. They're public servants performing public duties in public places, generally with a lower expectation of privacy in that capacity, not a higher one.

Two authorities worth knowing:

The Malaysian Bar stated plainly that there is no offence in recording police conducting a raid, and that where officers are carrying out duties lawfully, there's no cause for them to prevent recording. It drew the obvious comparison to bodycams and dashcams used by police in other jurisdictions precisely to record interactions with the public.

Bukit Aman CID director Huzir Mohamed acknowledged that recording police officers on duty is lawful and permissible.

That's a fairly clear position from both the profession and the police themselves.

2. The section 186 problem

Here's the catch.

The same acknowledgment from CID came with a suggestion that a person could still be considered to have obstructed a police officer if they continued recording after being asked to stop. That's section 186 of the Penal Code — voluntarily obstructing a public servant in the discharge of public functions.

Suaram's response was direct: section 186 cannot be used to criminalise a legal act. If recording is lawful, and you've committed no offence, an officer has no power to arbitrarily stop you and penalise you for something that isn't an offence.

That's a strong legal argument. It is also, practically, an argument you'd be advancing after being brought in — and that's the gap between your rights on paper and your evening.

This isn't hypothetical. In November 2020, a man was arrested for continuing to record a police raid after being warned, and a student activist was held after filming a raid. In April 2020, during MCO, the then-IGP publicly warned that people filming roadblocks with the intention of casting police in a bad light would face action — a position that sits awkwardly with the legal baseline, since intention to criticise isn't an ingredient of any recording offence.

So the honest position, which most articles on this topic won't give you: recording is lawful, the risk of being detained for it is real, and the two facts coexist.

3. The three limits that actually matter

Even taking the lawful baseline, there are boundaries that make the difference between a safe recording and a section 186 problem.

Don't interfere. If your recording physically obstructs an officer — you're in their way, you're standing between them and a suspect, you're following them around at close range — you've moved from documenting to interfering. Record from a distance. Stay in your car if you're at a roadblock.

Don't disrupt an operation. If police are mid-arrest, mid-raid or handling something volatile, filming at close quarters can genuinely compromise safety or an investigation. Distance is again the answer.

Don't record and then defame. The recording is one act; what you do with it is another. Posting a clip with a false or reckless caption about what an officer did can expose you to defamation, and potentially to Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 section 233 issues depending on content. The footage protects you. The caption can sink you.

4. What your footage is actually worth

This is why it matters, and Malaysia has real examples.

In January 2020 in Lahad Datu, a bystander recorded a 45-second clip showing two JPJ enforcement officers allegedly kicking a motorcyclist at KM23 of Jalan Lahad Datu-Sandakan. Police publicly appealed for that witness to come forward and give a statement — the recording became the centre of the investigation.

Note what happened there: the footage didn't get the recorder in trouble. It made them a witness in a misconduct investigation.

Recordings can support:

  • A complaint to the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (EAIC) or the police's own disciplinary machinery
  • Your defence in a criminal charge, where what was said and done at the scene is disputed
  • A civil claim for assault or wrongful detention
  • Simply establishing what actually happened when it becomes your word against an officer's

Evidence handling matters more than people think. Keep the original file with intact metadata — don't screen-record it, don't re-encode it, don't only keep a WhatsApp-compressed copy. Back it up immediately to cloud storage, because a phone can be seized or a file can vanish. If you're making a report, hand over the native file.

5. Bodycams: the position is shifting

PDRM has been rolling out body-worn cameras. According to Bukit Aman's Crime Prevention and Community Safety Department, the devices record video and audio for up to eight hours of duty, have no delete function, assign each user a specific ID, and are intended as evidence of what was said and done by those being inspected — as well as a check on officer misconduct and integrity issues. Failure to comply with bodycam instructions is a disciplinary breach, particularly for mobile patrol and motorcycle units.

Two practical consequences.

There may already be a recording. If an encounter goes wrong and the officer was wearing a bodycam, that footage exists and cannot be deleted by the officer. If you're making a complaint or defending a charge, your lawyer should be asking for it early, before retention periods lapse.

The argument for your right to record gets stronger. It's difficult to maintain that citizen recording of a public interaction is objectionable while the force itself adopts recording as a transparency measure. The IGP's own 2019 comment was that bodycams would prevent abuse and ensure transparency — a rationale that applies symmetrically.

What to actually do

If you decide to record at a roadblock or stop:

  • Stay in your vehicle unless asked to step out. Phone visible on the dash or in hand, not concealed.
  • Say so. "Encik, saya rakam untuk rekod saya." Openly recording is legally cleaner and de-escalates better than a hidden phone that gets discovered.
  • Keep a normal distance. Don't get out and circle the officer.
  • Keep your tone flat and cooperative. Provide your IC and licence when asked. Recording is not a substitute for compliance with lawful requests.
  • Capture the time, location and officer's identification if visible.

If you're told to stop recording:

  • Ask calmly whether you are being instructed to stop, and on what basis.
  • Understand the fork: continuing may be lawful but raises real section 186 exposure. Stopping preserves your evening but loses the record.
  • A middle path: stop the visible recording, leave audio running if your phone is already in hand, and write down everything immediately afterwards — time, location, officer names or numbers, what was said. Contemporaneous notes carry weight.
  • Do not physically resist, argue at length, or refuse to hand over documents. That converts a documentation dispute into a genuine obstruction case.

If something went wrong:

  • Back up the footage immediately, original file intact.
  • Lodge a police report, and consider a complaint to the EAIC.
  • If you were injured or arrested, get a lawyer before giving a detailed statement. See also: [What to do if you're arrested](/p/pdrm-you-re-under-arrest)

FAQ

Is it illegal to record police in Malaysia?

No. There's no law prohibiting it, and both the Malaysian Bar and CID have acknowledged that recording officers on duty is lawful.

Can a police officer force me to delete my video?

There's no general power to order deletion of a lawfully made recording. If it happens, note it — that itself is relevant to any complaint. Don't physically resist; back the file up and raise it afterwards.

Can I be arrested for recording?

It has happened, generally via section 186 of the Penal Code for continuing after being told to stop. Whether that's a proper use of section 186 is contested — Suaram argues it can't criminalise a lawful act — but the risk of detention is real regardless of who's right.

Can I post the video online?

Legally you can, but be careful with what you write around it. False or reckless captions can attract defamation claims and potentially CMA section 233 issues. If it's evidence in a complaint or investigation, consider handing it to the authorities before posting.

Does my dashcam count?

Yes, and it's often better — it's already running, it's not in your hands, and there's no moment where you're seen to start recording. Make sure the time and date are set correctly.

Do police have bodycams now?

PDRM has been rolling them out, with devices that record video and audio for up to eight hours and no delete function. If you're pursuing a complaint, ask about bodycam footage early.

What if it's JPJ or council enforcement rather than police?

The same baseline applies — no law prohibits recording enforcement officers on duty in public. The Lahad Datu case involved JPJ officers, and the recording became central to the investigation.

This article is general legal information, not legal advice, and reading it does not create a lawyer–client relationship.

The legality of recording and the scope of section 186 of the Penal Code is genuinely contested in Malaysia — the position taken by civil society and the Bar is not the same as how enforcement has sometimes operated on the ground, and we've set out both rather than pretending there's a clean answer. Nothing here is a guarantee about how a given encounter will go. If you're arrested or facing an obstruction charge, speak to a lawyer.

Spot something outdated or wrong? Tell us — we’ll verify and correct it, with the correction noted.

Key sources (6) — how this was verified