Scott Wagner is a retired law enforcement sergeant living in Central Ohio. He began his law enforcement career in 1980 working as a reserve deputy sheriff at the Licking County Sheriff’s Office in Newark, Ohio. In 1981, he was hired by the Ohio Department of Liquor Control as an Undercover Liquor Investigator. In 1982 he came back to Licking County and worked as an undercover narcotics investigator for the Metropolitan Enforcement Group. In 1984 he was hired as a patrolman for the City of Reynoldsburg Ohio.
It was at Reynoldsburg that he started earning police instructor certifications. First as a firearms instructor, then as a Police Physical Fitness Specialist and Defensive Tactics Instructor.
In 1991 he decided to seek a career in full-time instructing at Columbus State Community College in Columbus, Ohio. He became certified as an Ohio Peace Officer Academy Commander, taking over the reins of the Columbus State Police Academy. At the same time he was also seeking promotion as a Criminal Justice Professor, eventually earning the Professor Rank in 2004. He earned a number of other law enforcement instructor certifications over the years, particular in the area of firearms, including full-auto weapons instructors, sniper certification, chemical weapons certification, Arrest and Control Instructor Certification from L.A.P.D., Driving Instructor, and Impact Munitions instructor.
In 1991 Wagner was hired as a reserve Deputy Sheriff at the Union County Sheriff’s Office where he served for 20 years. He served as a patrol deputy, use of force expert, firearms and defensive tactics instructor, and was the only Reserve Deputy permitted to serve as a member of the Sheriff’s Special Response Team (SWAT) for 14 years where he was appointed as the Assistant Team Leader, and one of the first of two snipers on the team.
Wagner retired from Union County in 2011 to take a reserve position closer to home. He took a position as a police officer with he Village of Baltimore, Ohio Police Department, and was later promoted to a paid part-time Sergeants position in 2017. He retired from Baltimore in 2020.
Wagner is still a full-time Criminal Justice Professor at Columbus State. He has been a part time writer since the late 1980s writing first for the Police Marksman Association. He now writes part time for Springfield Armory and other organizations as well. He is the author of two bills that became law in Ohio in the late 1990s. One created the crime of unlawfully Disarming a Police Officer and the other removed barbell and martial arts training from Ohio’s Jails and Prisons.
