DUI Attorney in Huntington Park

Reviewed by Ron Chini, Esq. · CA State Bar No. 263308 · DUI defense attorney in Irvine, CA since 2009.
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How DUIs are policed in Huntington Park

Huntington Park polices itself — it is not a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department contract city. The Huntington Park Police Department, led by Chief of Police Cosme Lozano and headquartered at 6542 Miles Avenue, runs its own patrol, traffic, and detective divisions around the clock, seven days a week. The department reports 56 sworn officers and 52 civilian employees covering roughly 3 square miles packed with about 55,000 residents — one of the densest small cities in Los Angeles County — so DUI stops here are almost always a Huntington Park PD arrest, with a Huntington Park PD report and booking log, not a county sheriff's or CHP case.

The California Highway Patrol's East Los Angeles Area office, out of Monterey Park, patrols the regional freeways that frame this part of the county — including the I-710 corridor and a section of I-5 — so a DUI arrest made on or near a freeway on-ramp close to Huntington Park could end up as a CHP case even though the city has its own department for everything on surface streets like Pacific Boulevard, Gage Avenue, and Slauson Avenue.

• Patrol agency: Huntington Park Police Department (independent municipal department, not an LASD contract city)
• 56 sworn officers and 52 civilian employees serving a population of about 55,000 (hpca.gov / Huntington Park PD)
• CHP East Los Angeles Area office covers the nearby I-710 corridor and a section of I-5
• 2023: Huntington Park logged 114 DUI arrests, ranked 70th out of 103 similarly sized California cities in the state's Office of Traffic Safety rankings

Where a Huntington Park DUI case is heard

Criminal cases from a Huntington Park Police Department arrest — including most DUIs — are filed at the Downey Courthouse, the Los Angeles County Superior Court location that also handles cases from Bell, Bell Gardens, South Gate, and several other southeast-county cities. More serious felony matters can instead be filed at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center (CCB) in downtown Los Angeles. A straightforward misdemeanor first-offense DUI arrested by Huntington Park PD should expect Downey as the venue; Ron Chini will confirm your assigned department as soon as the case is filed.

One source of confusion worth clearing up directly: there is a separate, real building in Los Angeles County's own court directory called the "Huntington Park Courthouse" (6548 Miles Avenue, Huntington Park, CA 90255). It is listed as having territorial jurisdiction over Bell, Bell Gardens, Cudahy, Huntington Park, Maywood, South Gate, and Vernon — but its own phone directory lists only Civil, Small Claims, and Traffic lines. It does not list a criminal intake line, and it is not where DUI or other criminal matters from a Huntington Park arrest are heard. For DUI purposes, the Downey Courthouse — not the building called the Huntington Park Courthouse — is the correct venue.

Booking and getting a car back after a Huntington Park arrest

Huntington Park is one of the few small cities in the area that runs its own jail rather than booking through the county: arrestees are typically held at the Huntington Park Jail, inside the police department building at 6542 Miles Avenue, for no more than about 48 hours (not counting weekends and holidays) before release, transfer, or a court appearance. During booking, arrested people are generally permitted a number of free local calls, and the department's non-emergency line, (323) 584-6254, can help a family member confirm custody status and visiting hours. If your vehicle was towed as part of the stop, the arresting officer's report or the department's front desk can point you to the impound yard and release paperwork. None of this changes the separate 10-day DMV clock, which starts running at arrest regardless of how long someone is held.

Pacific Boulevard and Huntington Park's identity

Huntington Park was incorporated on September 1, 1906 as a streetcar suburb named for railroad and real-estate magnate Henry E. Huntington, built to house workers for the industries then expanding southeast of downtown Los Angeles. More than a century later, it's known regionally for Pacific Boulevard, a roughly 1.5-mile commercial corridor through the city's core that commercial real estate brokers rank as one of the strongest retail strips in Los Angeles County by foot and vehicle traffic — more than 40,000 cars a day pass the Pacific Boulevard/Gage Avenue intersection alone. The corridor's jewelry stores, quinceañera and bridal shops, and family-owned retailers make it one of Southern California's best-known Latino-oriented shopping destinations, drawing customers from well beyond the city's own roughly 55,000 residents. That same density and foot traffic is part of why DUI enforcement here concentrates on surface arterials like Pacific Boulevard, Gage Avenue, and Slauson Avenue rather than freeway miles — Huntington Park has no freeway running directly through it.

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Ron Chini, Esq.

DUI Defense Attorney · CA State Bar No. 263308

Ron defends DUI cases across Southern California from his Irvine office, in English and Farsi — and works directly with you, not a call center.

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