DUI Attorney in Maywood

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 Maywood

Maywood is unusual even among Los Angeles County's small contract cities: it has had no police department of its own since July 2010. DUI enforcement inside Maywood's roughly 1.17 square miles is handled entirely by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) under contract, out of the East Los Angeles Station, which also patrols Commerce, Cudahy, and the unincorporated East Los Angeles-area communities. A Maywood DUI stop is therefore a county sheriff's arrest, not a city-police arrest — there is no separate Maywood PD report, booking log, or traffic unit to deal with.

Because Maywood is one of the smallest and most densely populated cities in Los Angeles County — just over a square mile, packed with roughly 25,000 residents — its streets are almost entirely surface arterials (Slauson Avenue, Atlantic Boulevard, Fruitland Avenue, Pacific Boulevard) rather than freeway miles. Sheriff's patrols and OTS-funded saturation patrols concentrate on these corridors, and the city sits along the I-710 corridor that the California Highway Patrol's East Los Angeles Area office also polices for DUI near on/off ramps.

• Patrol agency: LASD, East Los Angeles Station (contract city — no Maywood PD)
• CHP East Los Angeles Area office covers the nearby I-710 corridor and a section of I-5
• DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols are OTS grant-funded and publicized only in general terms, not by exact corner

Where a Maywood DUI case is heard

Maywood has no city prosecutor for DUI, so the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office files both misdemeanor and felony Maywood DUI cases. Cases arising from an LASD East Los Angeles Station arrest have historically been filed at the East Los Angeles Courthouse on East Civic Center Way, the Superior Court location that has long served Maywood, Commerce, Cudahy, and the surrounding East LA-area communities. That venue is the historical pattern, not a guarantee — the county has reassigned criminal calendars before, so your citation or the court clerk is the final word on which department actually has your case. Ron Chini practices in courtrooms across Los Angeles County and will verify your assigned department as soon as the filing shows up.

Booking and getting a car back after a Maywood arrest

A Maywood DUI arrest is typically booked at the East Los Angeles Sheriff's Station jail, a temporary holding facility at 5019 E. Third Street, East Los Angeles, CA 90022 — the same station that patrols Maywood. LASD generally does not hold arrestees there more than about 48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays) before release, transfer, or court. Family members can call the station's booking information line, (323) 264-4151, or LASD's 24-hour inmate locator at (213) 473-6080, to confirm custody status. If your vehicle was impounded as part of the stop, ask the deputy or the station for the impound yard and release paperwork — Ron Chini's office can also help confirm where a vehicle was towed.

Why Maywood has no police department — the 2010 contracting-out

Maywood's lack of its own police force isn't incidental — it's the city's defining civic event. In mid-2009, the city's liability and workers'-compensation insurer notified Maywood it would cancel coverage effective July 1, 2010, citing a poor claims history built up over several years of costly litigation tied to the police department's traffic-enforcement and vehicle-impound practices (practices that had drawn sharp criticism after Maywood declared itself a 'sanctuary city' in 2006 amid a fight over checkpoints that disproportionately impounded cars from unlicensed, often undocumented, drivers). Unable to find replacement coverage, the Maywood City Council voted to lay off essentially every city employee — keeping only the city manager, city attorney, and elected officials — and contract out all municipal services. Effective July 1, 2010, Maywood became the first city in California to do this: it disbanded its police department and contracted with the LA County Sheriff's Department for law enforcement, and contracted with neighboring Bell for finance, parks, and other city functions. The move drew national coverage at the time as a cautionary case study in municipal risk management, and the LASD policing arrangement it produced is still what determines where a Maywood DUI arrest is booked and filed 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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