Cal. PEN § 647.9

This is the official text of Cal. PEN § 647.9, part of California’s Penal Code — defines crimes and sets criminal procedure in California.

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Official statutory text

(a) A first responder, operating under color of authority, who responds to the scene of an accident or crime and captures the photographic image of a deceased person by any means, including, but not limited to, by use of a personal electronic device or a device belonging to their employing agency, for any purpose other than an official law enforcement purpose or a genuine public interest is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) per violation.

(b) An agency that employs first responders shall, on January 1, 2021, notify its employees who are first responders of the prohibition imposed by this section.

(c) For purposes of this section, “first responder” means a state or local peace officer, paramedic, emergency medical technician, rescue service personnel, emergency manager, firefighter, coroner, or employee of a coroner.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.