Los Alamos police promote Cpl. Cody Martinez in public ceremony

Cpl. Cody Martinez’s promotion carries practical weight in Los Alamos: it adds another supervisor inside a police department the county says is authorized for 88.73 full-time positions, including 41 law-enforcement jobs. In a small agency, that kind of move affects who mentors officers, who helps manage patrol coverage and how quickly the chain of command can respond when calls stack up.

Martinez was formally sworn in Friday morning in the Los Alamos Magistrate Courtroom, in a ceremony that put his new rank in full public view. In released photos, he stood between Deputy Chief James Rodriguez and Cmdr. Ben Irving. A second image showed Martinez with his family, a reminder that these promotions ripple beyond the department itself and into the households that support the work.

The setting mattered. The Magistrate Courtroom has become a familiar venue for LAPD public recognition, and the department has used it before to make rank changes visible to the community. On March 19, the department held another courtroom ceremony presided over by Magistrate Judge Catherine Taylor, recognizing newly promoted Cmdr. Benjamin Irving and Sgt. Samantha Terrazas, along with newly hired Cpl. Ronaldo Ulibarri. A similar public swearing-in was also held in October 2024.

That public approach fits a department that says it values professionalism, integrity, accountability, respect, teamwork and communications. Los Alamos County says five of the department’s sworn senior staff positions are the chief, deputy chief and three commanders. Chief Dino Sgambellone has led the department since 2013, and the county says LAPD became CALEA-accredited under his leadership while Los Alamos has posted some of the lowest crime rates in its history.

The timing also underscores why a promotion like Martinez’s matters now. In a 2024 crime-statistics release, the department said it appreciated the community’s role in maintaining an exceptionally low crime rate and high quality of life. In April 2026, county crime statistics showed overall crime down 10 percent year over year in the first quarter. Keeping those numbers low depends not just on patrol cars on the street, but on enough experienced supervisors to train newer officers, manage shifts and keep response capacity steady.

In a county of 19,419 people, those staffing shifts are easy to see and hard to ignore. Martinez’s new rank adds another link in the department’s command structure at a moment when Los Alamos continues to measure public safety by performance, not ceremony alone.