5 things you shouldn't do when making a police report in Malaysia

Sometime in our lives, we may have to make a police report, whether it’s because we got into a car accident or became a victim to a crime. But while we may not think too much about it, did you know that there are certain things you can do while making a police report that could land you in trouble?

1. Uploading your police report on social media

You’ve probably seen it on your Facebook newsfeed before – one of your friends experiences a crime, makes a police report, and uploads it so the whole world will know the story. Seems pretty innocent right?

Well depending on the contents of the police report, publishing a police report could actually leave you open to a defamation suit. Which means someone can sue for making an untrue statement about them which causes a loss of reputation. 

But before we get to how ‘uploading police reports’ = ‘defamation’, we’d first have to know a legal concept called ‘privilege’. Actually if you have watched legal dramas or movies like Suits before, you may have heard a version of the term before: ‘attorney-client privilege’. It basically means that, whatever you tell your lawyer it cannot be used against you in court. So even if you told your lawyer you murdered someone, the court can’t use that to find you guilty. 

Similarly, privilege applies to police reports. Which means that what you say to the PDRM through your police report is protected and the contents can’t be used against you in court. But here’s the thing, the courts recently said that if you publish your police report you wouldn’t be protected by privilege. Thus if let’s say you named someone in a police report and you stated he did something (which is untrue) and it ruins his reputation –  you would be open to a lawsuit.

2. Making a false police report

If you’ve lost your IC, you probably start thinking of the difficult processes to follow. Go to JPN, pay the fine, and make a police report stating your IC got lost – so that it doesn’t get misused if found. But that fine we mentioned, may cause some people to alter the facts in their police reports. Because, if your IC got stolen instead of misplaced, you wouldn’t need to pay the fine. 

A little lie never hurt anyone, but it can hurt you if you lie to the PDRM while making a police report. This is because under Section 177 of the Penal Code, it’s actually an offence to lie in your police report. 

So it’s probably best to just pay the fine in JPN for losing your IC rather than taking a risk that could result in you being behind bars. 

3. Refusing to report certain crimes

Well this one has less to do with making police reports ad more to do with not making one. 

You may have experienced this, you were a victim of a crime or heard about one, but you just didn’t want to make a police report. Doesn’t seem so bad, right? Well in some situations, if you fail to report certain type of crimes it’s actually an offence. 

Section 13 of the Criminal Procedure Code says that there’s a legal duty to report to the PDRM about certain crimes, which includes:

• Waging war against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, Ruler, or Yang di-Pertua Negeri
• Possessing weapons or missiles at riot 
• Murder
• Kidnapping or abducting 
• Exploiting any person for the purpose of prostitution
• Rape 
• Incest
• Buggery with animal 
• Carnal intercourse without consent 
• Incites a child to an act of gross indecency
• Theft with preparation of causing death or hurt in order to commit theft 
• Extortion 
• Robbery 
• House trespass in order to commit an offence punishable by death or life imprisonment
• Housebreaking by night

And unless you have a reasonable excuse for not reporting about these crimes, Section 202 of the Penal Code says that you could be liable to up to 6 months in jail and/or a fine up to RM 2,000.

4. Waiting too long to make a police report

You’ve probably heard this before: “if you kena accident, you must report it within 24 hours”. 

According to Section 52 of the Road Transportation Act, it says just that:

 
And if you think there aren’t any consequences for not reporting the accident within 24 hours, a close look at the lengthy and technical Section 119 of the same act says that, anyone who without lawful excuse doesn’t comply with the RTA commits an offence.

But of course, because of the word “without lawful excuse” doesn’t mean that everyone who doesn’t report an accident within 24 hours would kena a penalty. If let’s say you had a valid excuse (eg. you needed time to recover from an injury), you would probably be let off the hook.

5. Withdrawing your police report