What is the Ohio Revised code that states officer who witnessed the offense must be the officer who signs tic?

Question

Ticket. I cant find it but I know its out there some place. IM going to keep looking but it is supposed to state the officer who witnessed or caught the "perp" in the act is the one who signs the ticket. (for traffic violations - speeding failure to yield etc)

I appreciate your help

Answer 1

It may be that Ohio requires all tickets to be based on non-hearsay information, which requires that the ticket contain allegations stated by the person who observed rather than somebody else who heard from that person.  

Of course, to have jurisdiction, a court will need a legally-sufficient accusatory instrument in any kind of case (infraction, misdemeanor, felony), and that means an accusatory instrument based on non-hearsay.  However, for lower-level offenses, there is a shorter allowable "speedy trial" period in which those instruments (misdemeanor complaint, traffic ticket, ects) must be "converted" and for low-level tickets, the ticket must be an "information" (no hearsay, all facts based on the info of the person who observed) by the time the ticjet is arraigned.  

Try seeing if Ohio penal code or vehicular law has a "speedy trial" statute - it may refer to traffic tickets and specify that they must be signed by the officer.

Answer 2

I don't believe this is in any law or code. I have seen radar set-ups in Ohio (onr freeways) where 1 officer clocks the vehicle and other officers stop the vehicle and issue tickets. This was done a lot when Michigan had a speed limit higher than Ohio and they set up right over the State line on I-75.

Answer 3

You won't find any law that States that in Ohio.

One example of that not being the case is the very common occurrence of using aircraft to work speed enforcement.  The officer in the aircraft determines how fast the car is going but the officer on the ground actually writes and signs the ticket.  

They have been doing that for years and those hold up in court.

Officers also regularly write citations on crash scenes when they did not arrive until after the violation occurred.  An officer has to have probable cause to believe the violation occurred.  Nowhere does it say that the probable cause has to be from that officer's own observations.

Answer 4

I've never heard of any state with that requirement. Under those conditions, an aircraft speed detail would be improper. It would also raise issues at a traffic accident, where an officer does not actually see the violation.