WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Waco Police Chief Sheryl Victorian is breaking down the numbers and taking a look back at 2025 in a one-on-one interview with 25 News. Chief Victorian also gave an update on staffing levels for the 100-square-miles officers cover and the U.S. Immigration Customs and Enforcement agency presence in Central Texas.
Watch the full interview between Charles and the chief here:
Crime Data
The chief said crimes against persons, with 11 more incidents in 2025 than 2024, saw a .4% increase.
Crimes against property went down another 12% over the historic low that the city had last year, and overall crime dropped 7%.
"Since 2021, overall crime has decreased 30% which is very significant here in the city of Waco," Chief Victorian said.
The chief added that property crimes since 2021 is down 40% as well.
Chief Victorian attributes the lower crime rate to hard work of the men and women in the police department, as well as the holistic approach that she said the department is taking to address crime.
"Prevention, intervention, education, and of course apprehension. So all of those have to work together in fine tune and of course the support from our community because they are our force multipliers and them educating themselves on how to reduce their own victimization and then supporting us when crime does happen and letting us know if they have information related to crime has also been very helpful."
The chief describes the line of communication between the police department and the Waco community as "incredible" in both directions, emphasizing the departmental philosophy of "relational policing," which means officers getting out and engaging within the community to connect and build trust on both sides.
Staffing Levels
Chief Victorian says the department currently has 286 officers, with ten in the police academy and start the civil service exam on Friday, Feb. 6. The department has an authorized strength of 297 officers in total.
"But when I got here five years ago, the authorized strength was 268, so I fell that we're going in the right direction and that we have increased staffing," Chief Victorian said. "But I would really love to get up to that 297 because as the city grows, our department is going to need to grow with it."
To help with recruitment, the chief said they have monetary incentives, explorers program, youth programs, internships and engagement on social media to put the department on the map for candidates that may not live in Waco.
"One of the new projects that we have is called 'Project Connect' where when we get new recruits after they graduate from the academy we're sending them out into the communities of Waco so they can learn more about the city that they will be serving once they're in that police car themselves," Chief Victorian said.
Indicted Former Officer
When 25 News' Charles Molineaux brought up an incident in 2025 where a former Waco police officer was accused tampering with evidence and body camera policy violations, the chief said moving forward the department addresses issues like that proactively and by holding people accountable. The chief also highlighted that the issue was identified by someone internally and addressed it right away.
"Primarily, that was a character and integrity issue with that particular individual, but there are things that we can do as an agency to make sure that we are being more proactive and holding people accountable: conducting body worn camera audits which is part of our policy and which we have been following up on to make sure that our supervisors are doing that. But the good thing about that is his behavior was reported by another officer. So to me, that says a lot about the men and women of the Waco Police Department who are out there trying to do the right thing."
Involvement with ICE
Chief Victorian describes the department's relationship with ICE, especially now, as a complicated and complex conversation, but have always worked with ICE on criminal investigations such as human trafficking, sex trafficking, and labor trafficking.
"Our relationship, our primary goal is to build relationships with our community and if somebody is victimized by a crime, we're gonna treat them as a victim. We don't want them to be afraid that we're going to ask them for their immigration status. If you're a suspect and we'll arrest you and in the course of an investigation and you're not here legally, by all means, you know, we're going to let ICE know, right? But what we don't want is people to be victimized, and continue to be re-victimized and then these suspects become emboldened because nobody's calling the police and it just spreads throughout our community and the crime is up again."
When asked about ICE protests and the potential of escalation to violence, Chief Victorian said officers get mobile field training and riot training if it comes to that, but she said the relationship the department has with the community is well enough that there is clear communication and respect of laws.
