Cmdr. Brent Hudspeth with LAHS Teacher Lori Thompson’s Sports Literature students. Courtesy/LAPS
By Rylee Gramer and Peyton Labonty
Los Alamos High School
Sports Literature Students
A few weeks ago, we interviewed Los Alamos Police Department Cmdr. Brent Hudspeth at the Los Alamos County Courthouse. Hudspeth is a tall man with brown eyes. We learned that he has a wife and a baby boy named Sebastian.
During the interview, we also found out more about his life and how he came to be a police commander in Los Alamos.
He grew up in Farmington but later moved to Los Alamos. According to him, his childhood was somewhat “traumatic”. Like most kids, he played a lot of games outside such as “Cops and Robbers.” Having a rough childhood led him to want to help people when he grew up.
He spent a lot of time working hard and dedicating himself to becoming an officer, and he hardly got any sleep while in training. Before switching careers and training to be a police officer, he was a pilot as well.
In the interview, he said, “The most difficult part of being a police officer is dealing with all of the information as well as both seeing the good and the bad in the community.”
“It was rough going to these crime scenes and seeing similar things to what happened to me when I was young,” Hudspeth added.
This was sad for us to hear, knowing he experienced these terrible things as a kid.
“It is awesome to serve the community, but there is a lot of chaos,” Hudspeth said.
He explained that he loves doing stuff for other people, but it can be very challenging and sometimes chaotic running around all over the place.
Later, we asked Cmdr. Hudspeth about the fastest speed he has ever pulled someone over, and it was 145 in a 50; it was at 2:00 A.M., and the guy was on a motorcycle “having a good time.”
In our interview, we asked him some silly questions as well!
One question was, “What is your favorite police car to drive?”
“I like the SUV’s, they are very practical,” he said. “Being a cop, you need to carry around a lot of gear and weapons, and you need somewhere to hold them all.”
We agree with his statement as SUV’s are very practical cars, and can hold a lot of equipment.
We asked him some other things that we were curious about, and he busted a myth of ours. That myth was: “Do the cops have quotas? Do your officers have to pull over a set amount of people by the end of the month?”
At the end of the interview, Hudspeth advised us all to know that as we grow up, we need to just take time, slow down, and just think about every move we make. He told us not to rush and take the time we have as kids and don’t take it for granted.
In the end, we learned a lot from Hudspeth, a couple of life lessons, and some answers to some questions we were curious about. We really enjoyed interviewing such a great guy and had a fun time with him.