Lt. Chris Bagby manages the Bakersfield (CA) Police Department’s Office of Performance and Analysis, which oversees the department’s Quality Assurance Unit, Crime Analysis Unit and wellness programs. He also manages the organization’s accountability and oversight programs, reform efforts, policy programs and organizational improvement projects, and chairs the department’s Use of Force Committee.
Lt. Bagby has been with Bakersfield since 2002, following four years in the U.S. Army. He has served in Patrol, Motors, Accident Reconstruction, Property Crimes Detectives, Robbery and Homicide Detectives, Headquarters and Investigations, and as a Patrol Sergeant. His collateral assignments include Terrorism Liaison Team Leader, department instructor, and member of the Civil Litigation Team.
Much of his career has been spent doing accountability and reform work under external scrutiny, including during the California Department of Justice investigation of his department and the stipulated judgment that followed. He built and ran the internal audit, use of force review and policy processes that agencies under consent decrees and similar agreements are required to produce, and he has worked on integrating research and performance measurement into those systems rather than treating compliance as an end in itself. His graduate thesis, Beyond Reform: Better Policing Through Systems Thinking, argues for approaching police reform as a systems problem.
Lt. Bagby was named a National Institute of Justice LEADS Scholar in 2022. He serves as Secretary and board member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police Police Research Advancement Section and sits on the IACP Research Advisory Committee.
He holds a Master of Arts in Security Studies from the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security and a Bachelor of Science in Public Administration from National University.
