If you’re wondering about police procedures—or just want some sharp legal insight—this Q&A style episode is packed with answers and practical examples.

Welcome back to Lawyer Talk! In this episode, host Steve Palmer dives into a listener’s question that stirs up plenty of curiosity: Can Ohio police pull you over in an unmarked cruiser?

With law student Troy Henricksen joining in, the conversation covers the legal nuances unique to Ohio, from what counts as a “competent” police witness in traffic court to the reasons behind those uniform and marked cruiser requirements.

Along the way, Steve Palmer unpacks courtroom procedures, shares real-world stories about undercover officers, and gives listeners a deeper understanding of how traffic stops play out under Ohio law.

Top 3 Takeaways:

1. Uniform + Marked Car = Required for Traffic Patrol: In Ohio, for a police officer’s testimony about a traffic violation to be competent in court, they must have been in uniform and driving a marked cruiser on routine patrol.
2. Undercover Cops Face Limits: Officers working undercover or as part of a task force, driving unmarked cars, are typically not allowed to testify against drivers in routine traffic violation cases.
3. Legal Definitions Matter: Ohio has unique “competency” rules—not just about mental fitness, but specific circumstances like police attire and vehicle—that can make or break a traffic case.

Got a question you want answered on the podcast? Call 614-859-2119 and leave us a voicemail. Steve will answer your question on the next podcast!

Submit your questions to www.lawyertalkpodcast.com.

Recorded at Channel 511.

Stephen E. Palmer, Esq. has been practicing criminal defense almost exclusively since 1995. He has represented people in federal, state, and local courts in Ohio and elsewhere.

Though he focuses on all areas of criminal defense, he particularly enjoys complex cases in state and federal courts.

He has unique experience handling and assembling top defense teams of attorneys and experts in cases involving allegations of child abuse (false sexual allegations, false physical abuse allegations), complex scientific cases involving allegations of DUI and vehicular homicide cases with blood alcohol tests, and any other criminal cases that demand jury trial experience.

Steve has unique experience handling numerous high-publicity cases that have garnered national attention.

For more information about Steve and his law firm, visit Palmer Legal Defense.

Copyright 2025 Stephen E. Palmer - Attorney At Law

Mentioned in this episode:

Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants

Circle 270 Media® is a podcast consulting firm based in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in helping businesses develop, launch, and optimize podcasts as part of their marketing strategy. The firm emphasizes the importance of storytelling through podcasting to differentiate businesses and engage with their audiences effectively. www.circle270media.com

All right, Steve Palmer here, lawyer talk off the record, on the air, taking a question. I got a great question the other day. Can a police officer. Now, this is limited to Ohio, so, like, first, a couple of premises here. First of all, we work in Ohio. I work all over the place, and I've done appellate work, and I've got a case in Virginia right now I'm working on for an appeal. We hire other lawyers. I do a lot of cases in federal court, and I can do that wherever.

But this one's about Ohio, and my client is asking me, can a police. Not with my client, but a listener was asking me, can the police pull me over in Ohio in an unmarked cruiser? This is an interesting question because Ohio, I think, is a little bit unique. I just got back from a road trip, and as I went down south, what I noted is a lot of the guys, cops on the side of the road, you can't always tell that they're cops. You know, they got, like, Dodge Chargers or, you know, fancy SUVs. And, you know, you think they're cops because they're sitting on the side of the road, but you're like, come on, man. How do you even know that that guy's a police officer?

I mean, it could literally just be me and my friends buying lights, throwing them on a car.

People have done that. It's not good impersonating a police officer, but, you know, free time, you know.

Just too much time on my hands.

So it's not always the case that. At least across the country. Look, I don't practice in the states I'm talking about, but I presume that somebody like me down there would have said, they can't do that. And some court said, yes, we can. Ohio's a little different, though. In Ohio, whenever there's, say, a speeding ticket case or a traffic violation or something, the first thing that the prosecutor asks the cops on the witness stand, or at least close to the top, is, what were you wearing that day? I was wearing the uniform of the day. What were you driving? I was driving a marked cruiser with the Visibar lights. Okay.

And that's sort of. That's. That's where it stopped. Or that's like that introductory stuff that always happens, and there's a reason for that. In Ohio, we have something called, like, everybody's got evidentiary rules, but in Ohio, we have one on competency. And competency means, are you competent, Troy, to be a witness at trial? We're not talking, like, are you, like, mentally incompetent? Although Mental incompetence could make you incompetent.

Yeah.

Do you remember in law school, like what would make you incompetent?

I know there's like the IQ standard.

Forget about that.

Okay, okay.

You don't understand. So say we have a kid on the witnesses. Say you have like a. Oh yeah, a three year old who's going to testify in a case. We usually get like a little separate hearing with the judge who's going to say. All right, young man, what's your name? Bobby. Bobby. Okay, Bobby.

You in school? No, I'm in preschool. In preschool does. Have you ever learned about what a lie is? Oh, yes, I know what a lie is. What's a lie? Well, it's a lie when it, when you say something that isn't true or, you know, whatever it would be.

Yeah.

So if I said that there's a giant elephant in this room right now, is that true or is that a lie? And by little Bobby will say, well, that's a lie. I used to do it. I used to do it with my kid. It's like whatever it is, like you're wearing a dress. No, I'm not. You're wearing a dress. No, I'm not. You know, whatever it would be, it's a lie.

So the, like. One of the fundamental notions of competency is you have to understand what's true and what's a lie. So if you can't understand truth from a lie, then you're theoretically incompetent to be a witness. So that's an example of competency. Sometimes though, we have. Ohio has created competency issue out of things that really don't seem to have anything at all to do with somebody understanding truth from lies. And one of those would be in Ohio we have something called spousal competency.

I don't know what that is.

You don't even know what. They don't teach you that in law school. They don't teach you that they should have. In Ohio there's a general rule that a spouse, a husband or a wife is incompetent to testify against the other. It's a general rule. You can imagine there's accepted. Can you guess what the exceptions would be?

Maybe if it's like to. At least. I think how we learned in law school is one, they have to be actually married at the time and then.

Well, that's a privilege. It's different.

Okay, so we got taught like a privilege. I imagine if you're like hurting somebody or like plan to hurt somebody or plan to commit a crime, you can.

Well, that's close. Abusive. So domestic violence, like. So if I commit domestic violence against my wife, I can hardly go into court and expect the law to protect her from testifying against me. That would be horrible. But I had, you know, generally, though, in some other stuff, there's this spousal competency rule that. Now that. What's interesting about that is that the defendant can make objections to that.

Now, you brought up something else, and we're going way far afield here, but we're going to do it anyway. You. You brought up something else, and that was privilege.

Yeah.

So the things that I say to my wife during our marriage becomes privileged.

Yep.

After the marriage, if I say things to my wife or before we're married, well, it's not privileged, but things I say during marriage are privileged. Now, competency is different. Competency just means that I can keep my spouse off the witness stand in certain scenarios. Pretty limited, but you can do it. Now, what does all this have to do with whether police have to have more cruisers?

Maybe you're married to a cop, you.

Know, so your wife or your husband can't pull you over. No. Here's what. Ohio also has a similar rule about police officers. Police officers are generally incompetent to testify in a traffic case if they were not in uniform on routine traffic patrol, driving a marked cruiser. Now, where does this come up? Every now and then, we get some police officers who. Maybe they're involved in something called a task force. There was a recent series on one of the show, one of the.

One of the platforms called Task, which I've never heard of called it. We have a task, but anyway, task force. So these guys run around undercover investigating people in dope cases. And, Troy, you're outside of dope house. And what's a dope house? Well, that's where people go buy crack or people go buy fentanyl or whatever drugs there is. And the police knows it because they've got snitches all over the place. And they watch Troy pull up in his Honda Accord, and he goes into the dope house and then comes out holding something in his hand, shoves it in his pocket, gets in his car, and drives off. Police are like, we got that guy, and that's his Troy dressed like that.

He's gonna be a great snitch for us.

I'd like to make a correction. I had a Civic. Okay. Everything else was true, though.

Everything else is true. But he had a civic. The police say, but how do we Get Troy. Let's pull him over. Let's initiate a traffic stop. So let's. Let's pull them over. And so they.

They pull up in their Chevy Malibu, 1985 Malibu. Because they're trying to blend in.

Yeah.

And they put the little siren on top like you see it, like Starsky and Hutch style. And they pull you over and they stop you, even though you ran the red light. So you did run a red light. So they stop you, and then they say, hey, Troy, we just saw you going. And the case unfolds from there. Now the question is, if these cops came into court and tried to prove through their testimony that you actually ran the red light. Well, you tell me, how does it play out?

Probably object because they're not competent to testify because they're just wearing some hoodies in an unmarked car.

Not on traffic patrol. Yeah, that's a requirement in Ohio. So the answer to the question is always. Sometimes maybe. Right. It's always like, you know, you never quite know, but most of. If a police officer pulls you over for a traffic violation and that police officer is not wearing uniform, not driving a marked cruiser and not on routine patrol, meaning, like, coming home from work or something, isn't routine patrol. That would be the argument that officer is incompetent to testify.

So think of it like a legal. It's a. These are all terms of art. So incompetent means that the. The law or the rules of evidence would not allow that guy to take the stand and testify against you.

Checks out.

Checks out. It's a great question. I love it. Keep them coming. Lawyer talk, off the record on there. Taking it Q and A style till now.