Penang chief cop: No search warrant needed when investigating arrestable offence

GEORGE TOWN: Police do not need a warrant to do a premises search if the case they are investigating involves an arrestable offence, says Penang police chief Comm Datuk Mohd Shuhaily Mohd Zain.

Comm Mohd Shuhaily was commenting on a case where a woman refused to allow a group of policemen in plain clothes to enter her apartment because she did not believe they were real police officers.

Videos of the incident had gone viral on social media and messaging apps.

In the incident, the woman did not allow the team who identified themselves as policemen from Nilai commercial crime unit and Penang's Dato Keramat police station, who were conducting a raid under Ops Pelican on July 12 at about 11pm.

Comm Mohd Shuhaily said premises owners have the right to decide who they will allow into their house.

"However, police also have rights if the case they are investigating involves an arrestable offence, and a raid can be conducted without a warrant," he said in a press conference at the Penang police headquarters on Wednesday (July 14).

When asked if police would take action against the woman in the video, Comm Mohd Shuhaily said she cooperated after she was eventually convinced that the group were indeed policemen.

"If she had not cooperated, action under Section 186 of the Penal Code could have been taken against her," he said.

In the videos, taken from the woman's perspective behind a closed grille door, a group of at least seven policemen wearing plain clothes is seen asking her to cooperate and allow them into her apartment for an inspection.

Only one of the men is seen wearing a yellow vest with the letters "PDRM" on it.

The woman says that she does not believe that they are policemen and that she cannot let them in.

She also tells them she is afraid to open the door, as it is late and there are children in the unit.

She appears to be livestreaming the video and asks for help and advice from her friends on social media.

The men then tell her to call 999 for confirmation as they have been waiting for hours.

They also threatened to cut the padlock to the unit to gain entry but eventually decided against it.