Durham, NC
Sergeant Wagstaff joined the Durham Police Department in 2015 after years of early career exposure as a police explorer with both the Durham (NC) and Charleston (SC) Police Departments. Assigned to the Organized Crime Division, Wagstaff is charged with directing innovative solutions at emergent crime trends while overseeing key strategic projects. He previously led a uniform patrol squad in a district serving over 100,000 residents and supervised investigators in the Special Victims Unit.
A staunch advocate of evidence-based policing, Sergeant Wagstaff has worked to translate research into practice for over a decade. Locally, he has championed a trauma-informed response to intimate partner violence and pioneered an environmental management approach for reducing the consequences of disruptive college partying while building collective efficacy. He has co-authored empirical research on the relationship between citizen oversight and procedural justice published in the American Journal of Criminal Justice. His role as a Policing Fellow with the National Policing Institute since 2018 further underscores his commitment to shaping policing practices on a national front.
Sergeant Wagstaff holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Spanish from the College of Charleston and a master's degree in Criminal Justice - Public Administration from Liberty University. He has an Advanced Law Enforcement Certificate from the NC Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and is a General Instructor (adjunct). His research interests include police accountability, procedural justice and police legitimacy, and organizational change.