After nearly two decades with the Sedona Police Department, Kevin Hudspeth signed off the police radio for the last time at 4 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 23, and started his retirement.
“It was a long journey, a lot of hard work and a lot of stuff I had to go through that people never heard, or probably never will hear about,” Hudspeth said of his career with SPD, which started on Jan. 11, 2006.
Starting on May 30, 1986, Hudspeth was in the U.S. Navy for eight years, leaving as a petty officer second class. He worked as a military police officer starting in October 1991, which he said cultivated his love for law enforcement. He also worked with an Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit alongside U.S. Marines. He said it was a lifestyle that felt like a good fit. His duty stations ranged from San Diego to Diego Garcia, a joint British and U.S. military base in the Indian Ocean.
“My first professional career wasn’t until 2003; I ended up going to Everett, Wash., with the police,” Hudspeth said. “With the Sedona Police Department I started as a patrol officer. I worked my way into being a firearms instructor. Worked my way into being a rifle instructor, field training officer … I created the rifle program for the Sedona police department, became an armorer for the rifle program.”
“The biggest thing that I’m most proud of? Prior to me becoming the rifle instructor, everybody shared a rifle, which was a large liability,” Hudspeth said. “Once I became the rifle instructor, I was able to get it so that the department supplied rifles to everybody [circa 2013] … so they could be sighted in to everybody’s eye.”
Hudspeth said his other major accomplishment was becoming a certified commercial vehicle inspector in 2018, with certifications for inspecting general commercial vehicles, tankers and hazardous material vehicles, in which role he used a 32-point checklist to inspect vehicle areas such as the engine, brakes and driver credentials.
One of Hudspeth’s most memorable calls took place on July 20, 2016, when Michael Pastore barricaded himself inside his car on southbound State Route 179 after being fired by a local restaurant the previous day.
Pastore, who had threatened to shoot “as many people as he needed to,” was later arrested without incident.
“The second one that won’t ever leave my mind is an incident that occurred at [a local mobile home park] that had to do with a lady that was tied up with duct tape, and she was kind of kidnapped and abused,” Hudspeth said. “It was a shocking thing to open a door and see all that.”
Hudspeth also received a lifesaving commendation while he was at SPD for responding to a May 8, 2018, call in Oak Creek Canyon.
“On scene, [Hudspeth] was there with [Sedona Fire District] personnel,” the Sedona Red Rock News reported in January 2021. “Fire needed to verify what medications the female was on, so they had to leave the scene with the husband, with only Hudspeth and a firefighter with the woman. The woman attempted to dive over a railing to a three-story fall head first. Without hesitation, Hudspeth grabbed the woman before she went over the railing and, with the assistance of the firefighter, was able to pull her to safety.”
Now that he is safely retired, Hudspeth plans to focus on his golf game, noting that he hopes to participate in law enforcement golf tournaments in the future. He also said he would be tackling a few “honey-do lists” that he said his wife has been trying to get him to finish ever since he started with SPD. They are also considering relocating to Mississippi or another southern state for their retirement and he is not taking another job.
“I’m just going to try to enjoy retirement and do a lot of golf, and hopefully one day, all my court cases will be closed and I don’t have to deal with it anymore,” Hudspeth said.
