Los Angeles County Police Departments

Los Angeles County Police Departments

Los Angeles County has several different Police Departments for the various cities within it, as well as one for Los Angeles Airport.

Los Angeles City itself has the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), but other cities in Los Angeles County either operate their own Police Department, or they are policed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD), which also operates the courts in their areas.

The California Highway Patrol (CHP) is a law enforcement agency for the State of California, that works in conjunction with local Police Departments and the County Sheriff’s Department.

Signing your Traffic Citation (ticket)

So it is possible to be given a traffic ticket by a Police Officer, a Deputy Sheriff, or a Highway Patrol Officer, depending upon your location. They will ask you to sign the traffic ticket and when you do so, you are actually signing that you agree to resolve the ticket and/or go to court if that is required. It is not an admission of guilt. If however you do not resolve your ticket and/or go to court, this will result in a misdemeanour charge, which is a criminal offence.

If you refuse to sign the ticket, the officer concerned may arrest you to bring you up before a judge straight away, however if a judge is not immediately available, this may then involve being put in jail, to wait until such time that you can be brought before a judge when the court is in session.

You must resolve your traffic ticket with the court, not the Police department

Once you have been issued with a traffic ticket, and assuming that you have signed it, the police have no further role to play, apart from appearing in court when your case comes up. This means that you cannot go to a police station or sheriff’s office to resolve or dispute your traffic ticket; you must deal with the nominated court.  You will find the name of the court written at the bottom of your traffic ticket. See list of traffic courts in Los Angeles County.

What happens if you lose your traffic ticket?

If you lose your traffic ticket, you cannot go to a police station or sheriff’s office, you must address the issue with the court system. You can go to the LA Superior Court Online website, where you can search for traffic tickets based on your driver’s license number. See check the status of your traffic ticket.

Check the status of your traffic ticket

The first thing you should do if you have a traffic ticket problem in Los Angeles is go to the Los Angeles Superior Court website to  check the status of your traffic ticket.

Los Angeles County Police Departments