Mendocino County, CA Curfew Laws: Juvenile Curfew (2026)

Chapter 8.08 of the Mendocino County Code, titled 'Curfew - Minors,' is the County's juvenile-curfew framework and applies countywide in unincorporated areas. The Chapter contains separate sections for older minors (sixteen to eighteen years of age) and younger minors (under sixteen), with the older-minor curfew typically running later than the under-sixteen curfew. The framework follows the standard California county-curfew template authorized by Welfare & Institutions Code Section 625.5, which permits but does not require local curfew ordinances. The Chapter prohibits minors from being on public streets, sidewalks, parks, vacant lots, or other public places during the curfew hours, with exceptions required by First Amendment and California case-law jurisprudence (Bantelman v. Hibbing line of cases): minors accompanied by a parent, guardian, or other adult having lawful custody; minors traveling directly to or from lawful employment; minors traveling to or from a school activity, religious activity, or organized sporting/recreational/civic event; minors responding to an emergency; minors engaged in interstate travel; minors on the sidewalk in front of the minor's own residence or that of a neighbor who has not complained; and minors exercising First Amendment rights (speech, assembly, religion). Parents who knowingly permit a minor to violate the curfew may be cited under a separate parental-responsibility section. Enforcement in unincorporated communities (Mendocino, Anderson Valley, Round Valley, the Russian River unincorporated areas, the Mendocino Coast, the Highway 101 corridor north, Hopland, Redwood Valley, Talmage, Calpella) is by the Mendocino County Sheriff. Sheriff deputies who encounter a minor in violation typically take the minor into protective custody under Welfare & Institutions Code Section 625, transport the minor home to a parent or guardian, or - in cases involving runaway or endangered minors - to the Mendocino County Juvenile Hall in Ukiah. The cities of Ukiah, Fort Bragg, Willits, and Point Arena have their own municipal-code curfew sections enforced by city police; Ukiah Police, Fort Bragg Police, and Willits Police handle curfew calls inside their respective city limits. The Mendocino County Probation Department, Juvenile Court, and County Office of Education collaborate on truancy enforcement (separately authorized by Education Code Section 48260 et seq. and W&I Code 601). During the 2020-2021 COVID-19 statewide 'Limited Stay at Home' curfew period, Mendocino County law enforcement generally focused on education and warnings rather than citations, consistent with the rest of California.