Sergeant John “Jack” Wagstaff Jr is currently assigned to the Durham Police Department’s (NC) Patrol Services Bureau. He previously served as an investigative supervisor in the Special Victims Unit and led several ad hoc teams in problem-oriented policing. His experience also includes membership on three specialty teams (Honor Guard, Mobile Field Force, and the Crisis Intervention Team), serving as a liaison for the Criminal Intelligence Unit, drafting recommendations for patrol beat realignment under the guidance of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), serving on the planning committee for the department’s transition from Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) to National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), and assisting with the adoption of a real-time crime information platform. He is known among the ranks for his work ethic and innovative problem-solving. By year four of his career, Wagstaff had been named the Durham Police Officer of the Year (2018), Crisis Intervention (CIT) Officer of the Year (2018), and Officer of the Month on four separate occasions. In 2020, Wagstaff earned his Advanced Law Enforcement Certificate from the North Carolina Criminal Justice Training and Standards Commission and went on to become a law enforcement general instructor.

A staunch advocate of evidence-based policing, Wagstaff has worked to advance 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.

Sergeant Wagstaff holds a BS in Business Administration and Spanish from the College of Charleston, and an MS in Criminal Justice-Public Administration from Liberty University. The focus of his graduate research was engendering a climate for evidence-based policing in local law enforcement through organizational design. He has co-authored research published in the American Journal of Criminal Justice on the relationship between citizen oversight and procedural justice in policing. Other research interests include police accountability, leadership, and organizational change.