About the author →
Buena Park is a city defined by its own police department, its own city jail, and a theme park that put it on the map. If you were arrested for DUI inside city limits — on Beach Boulevard, near Knott's Berry Farm, or anywhere else in town — or on one of the freeways that cross the city, Ron Chini defends the case from his Irvine office. Here is exactly where your case goes, who books it, and why Buena Park sees the enforcement pattern it does.
Where a Buena Park DUI case is heard
Buena Park DUI — court, prosecutor & booking at a glance
Arrested on the freeway instead of in the city?
Buena Park sits at the junction of Interstate 5 and State Route 91. If your stop happened on one of those freeways rather than on a city street, the California Highway Patrol — not Buena Park PD — likely made the arrest, and your booking and property paperwork may run through a different process than a city-street arrest. For a misdemeanor, the case still proceeds to the North Justice Center in Fullerton, but check your release paperwork for the arresting agency before you assume which jail or property office to call.
Buena Park's own police department — and the CHP on the freeways
Buena Park is not one of the Orange County cities that contracts its police services to the Orange County Sheriff's Department — it runs its own full-service department, headquartered at 6650 Beach Boulevard in a building that also houses the department's own Type I jail, crime lab, and evidence facilities. A DUI arrest made inside city limits is typically a Buena Park PD case from the first stop through the first court date.
The freeways are a different story. The California Highway Patrol's Santa Ana Area Office — which patrols roughly 225 miles of freeway including Interstate 5, Interstate 405, and State Routes 55, 22, and 91 — handles DUI enforcement on I-5 and the 91 as they run through Buena Park. An arrest a few hundred feet apart, inside the city versus on the freeway shoulder, can mean two different arresting agencies and two different booking processes.
- Buena Park Police Department's Traffic Unit has run DUI/driver's-license checkpoints funded by California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) grants passed through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration — documented in local coverage of a checkpoint as far back as December 29, 2017; confirm the department's current checkpoint calendar before relying on timing.
- CHP's Santa Ana Area Office patrols I-5 and SR-91 through Buena Park as part of its roughly 225-mile freeway beat.
- Because Buena Park keeps its own department and jail, an in-city arrest does not automatically route through the Orange County Sheriff's intake system the way it would in one of the OC cities that contracts with OCSD for police services.
Knott's Berry Farm, Beach Boulevard, and why Buena Park sees concentrated DUI enforcement
Buena Park's identity starts with a berry stand. Walter Knott and his family settled in Buena Park on December 15, 1920, and began selling berries roadside along what is now Beach Boulevard. In June 1934 the Knotts started serving fried chicken dinners in a tea room on the property — the dinners that became Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant — and the crowds waiting for a table are the reason Walter Knott began building a replica Ghost Town in 1940, the attraction that grew into today's Knott's Berry Farm theme park.
That history still shapes the city's traffic. Knott's draws millions of visitors a year, and the stretch of Beach Boulevard running past it — once anchored by the Movieland Wax Museum just north of the park from 1962 to 2005 — is the corridor Buena Park and local press refer to as the city's Beach Boulevard Entertainment Corridor. Dinner shows, hotels, and the park itself keep that stretch of Beach Boulevard carrying heavy evening and weekend traffic long after a typical commute has ended — exactly the kind of pattern that concentrates DUI enforcement.
Where will my Buena Park DUI case be heard?
I was arrested by Buena Park police — where was I booked?
What if I was arrested on the 91 or I-5 instead of in the city?
Does my Buena Park DUI case ever go anywhere besides the North Justice Center?
How much does it cost to talk to Ron Chini about a Buena Park DUI?
Buena Park is one of several North Orange County cities routed through the North Justice Center. For the full courthouse picture and the rest of the cities we serve, see our Orange County DUI Defense page.
Ron defends DUI cases across Southern California from his Irvine office, in English and Farsi — and works directly with you, not a call center.
Learn more about Ron Chini →