DUI Attorney in Lakewood

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 Lakewood

Lakewood has never run its own municipal police department. When it incorporated in 1954, it became the nation's first "contract city" — contracting with Los Angeles County, instead of building its own departments, for services including law enforcement. That original 1954 agreement with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department is still in force today, and it's why the station patrolling Lakewood carries the city's own name: the LASD Lakewood Station, 5130 Clark Ave., Lakewood, CA 90712. The station has since grown to also serve Artesia, Bellflower, Hawaiian Gardens, Paramount, and the unincorporated areas of Cerritos and Long Beach, but Lakewood is where the arrangement started.

Freeway stops near Lakewood are a different story. The CHP's Santa Fe Springs Area office, 10051 Orr and Day Rd., Santa Fe Springs (562-649-6800), lists Lakewood among its served cities and patrols the I-605 and SR-91 corridors that run along the city's edges. A DUI stop on a Lakewood surface street — Lakewood Boulevard, Del Amo Boulevard, South Street — is typically made by an LASD Lakewood Station deputy; a stop on I-605 or SR-91 is more likely to be CHP.

• LASD Lakewood Station (contract city, original 1954 agreement): non-emergency dispatch via (562) 623-3500
• CHP Santa Fe Springs Area office: (562) 649-6800

Where a Lakewood DUI case is heard

A Lakewood DUI arrest — whether made by an LASD deputy or CHP — is filed and heard at the Bellflower Courthouse. The Los Angeles County Superior Court's Southeast District assigns Bellflower jurisdiction over Artesia, Bellflower, Cerritos, Hawaiian Gardens, and Lakewood.

Booking and getting a car back after a Lakewood arrest

Lakewood Station itself doesn't hold anyone long — it's where the arrest gets processed, not where someone sits. Once booking there wraps up, custody shifts into the wider county system: men generally end up downtown, cycling through the Inmate Reception Center, Men's Central Jail, or Twin Towers depending on bed space, while women are routed to the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood. Whether someone gets out on their own recognizance, posts bail, or is simply cited and released comes down to the particulars of that arrest — if you've lost track of where a family member landed in that system, our office can help trace it.

Getting a towed or impounded car back after a Lakewood stop means going to whichever tow yard the deputy named at the scene, not the station itself. Plan to bring photo ID along with proof you own or are registered to the vehicle and current insurance, and budget for the towing and storage charges that accrue while the car sits there.

Lakewood: the original "contract city" — and the first 24-hour helicopter patrol

Lakewood's place in Southern California history goes beyond being a postwar suburb. When it incorporated on April 16, 1954, Lakewood became the first city in the nation to contract out essentially all of its municipal services — most notably policing — rather than build its own departments. That arrangement, promoted by attorney John Todd and still called the "Lakewood Plan," became the template that a quarter of California's cities, including several of Lakewood's own neighbors, later copied. Lakewood's law-enforcement firsts didn't stop there: in 1966, the city and the Sheriff's Department launched "Sky Knight," the nation's first day-and-night helicopter patrol program, putting aerial backup over Lakewood's streets decades before it became standard practice elsewhere.

The city itself grew just as fast as its governing model. Starting in 1950, the Lakewood Park Company — developers Louis Boyar, Mark Taper, and Ben Weingart — built roughly 17,500 houses across about 3,500 acres at a pace of 40 to 60 homes a day, a new house completed every 7½ minutes. Lakewood Center, the regional mall built alongside the new neighborhoods and anchored by a four-level, 346,700-square-foot May Co. department store billed at the time as the largest suburban department store in the world, opened in the early 1950s and is still one of the larger shopping centers in the region today.

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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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