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Waco Police chief reports 2025 staffing gains and declines in several crime categories
Summary
Chief Cheryl Victorian told council Waco had 286 sworn officers (authorized 297) with 31 new hires in 2025, a 30% decrease in Group A crimes since 2021 and programmatic initiatives for 2026 including multidisciplinary crisis response and recruitment partnerships.
Police Chief Cheryl Victorian presented the Waco Police Department’s 2025 review and outlined priorities for 2026 during the Feb. 3 work session.
Victorian reported an authorized sworn strength of 297 officers and an actual sworn strength of 286, including 10 officers currently in the academy. “In 2025, we hired 31 new hires,” Victorian said, and reported 12 separations to attrition for the year. She said those staffing moves, plus recruitment partnerships (including officers teaching at Baylor University and explorer- and youth-program pipelines), helped sustain hiring.
On crime statistics Victorian said the department uses the FBI’s National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) and that Group A crime — which covers crimes against persons, property and society — is down roughly 30.6% since 2021. She singled out a roughly 41% decline in crimes against property since 2021 and a small increase of 0.4% in crimes against persons (about 11 more incidents). Victorian noted family-violence incidents drove much of the crimes-against-persons figures and described ongoing work by the family violence unit.
Victorian addressed homicide investigations, saying Waco ended the year with eight homicides and that investigators had cleared five of those cases. She urged residents with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
The chief reviewed dispatch workload and response metrics, noting total calls entered to CAD and that average hold and call-handling times decreased; she flagged the city’s average priority‑1 response time and said staff would investigate factors affecting it.
Victorian described department initiatives for 2026 including a multidisciplinary response team (police, mental‑health provider and EMT) to respond nonuniformed to behavioral-health crises; participation in the national NewBlue Project Connect for cultural orientation of field trainees; an expanded crime-scene and major-crimes coordination model; and internal well‑being programs and training for officers.
Council members praised the department’s measured reductions in several crime categories, asked for follow-up about canine recruitment and the family‑violence prevention efforts, and congratulated staff on awards and community programming.
