Skip to content
READY TO SERVE
Create Free AccountSign In
Law EnforcementCareer Guide

How to Become a Police Officer in Waco, Texas

10 min readUpdated 2026-08-22

Waco last published a police recruit cell on Salary & Benefits. Civil Service Police Salary Schedule, FY 2025-2026, effective 10/01/2025. Police Officer (Grade I - 901) Recruit $32.89 hourly. Commissioned $38.28. Year 1 $39.42. Year 2 $40.60. Year 5 $44.37. That is the dated recruit cell. NEOGOV 5344313 prints Starting Pay: $32.8959 per hour. The recruit cell on this page is $32.89 / $32.8959. A 2,080-hour year at $32.89 is $68,411.20. This page uses the hourly cells. The same NEOGOV page stores a JSON-LD salary range of $24.70 to $36.49 an hour. The visible salary field is "See Position Description." $24.70 is schema, not the start. Those figures are not the recruit cell.

Law enforcement pathway

The closed cadet card is NEOGOV 5344313 / Job Number 2026-01159, Police Recruit and Entry Level Police Officer. Opening Date 05/18/2026. Closing Date 7/9/2026 4:00 PM Central. The examination was Saturday, July 18, 2026, 9:00 AM Central. Background packets were due Wednesday, July 15, 2026, 4:00 p.m. A keywords=police search on governmentjobs.com/careers/wacotx did not return a live recruit requisition this retrieval.

Waco Fire, Waco ISD PD, and Citizens Police Academy hire on separate schedules. This page covers Waco PD.

The license is TCOLE's. The job is Waco PD's. Those are two gates. The Texas sequence is in How to Become a Police Officer in Texas. The license rules are in TCOLE peace officer license requirements. This page is the department recruiting tree, the FY 2025-2026 schedule, and NEOGOV 5344313.

Department listing: Waco Police Department. Pay comparison: Texas police salary by department. That salary page still keeps Waco out of the N=12 table because that collection is DFW municipal departments plus Texas DPS. City hiring guides in this series: Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Frisco, McKinney, Mesquite, Grand Prairie, Denton. Texas DPS hiring from Training Operations is How to Become a Texas State Trooper. Houston hiring from hpdcareer.com and NEOGOV 5328764 is How to Become a Police Officer in Houston. Lubbock hiring from Recruiting, the 2025-26 pay scale, NEOGOV 5405047, and lateral 5097636 is How to Become a Police Officer in Lubbock. Amarillo hiring from Benefits/Salaries, Hiring Process, Lateral Entry, Academy Preparation, and Workday JR2397 is How to Become a Police Officer in Amarillo. Brownsville hiring from the June 13, 2025 civil service notice, Employment & Benefits, and the stay-tuned exam page is How to Become a Police Officer in Brownsville. McAllen hiring from the August 21, 2026 civil service notice, Staff Services, and the October 13, 2026 exam packet is How to Become a Police Officer in McAllen.

What Waco PD actually is

Headquarters: 3115 Pine Avenue, Waco, Texas 76708. Non-emergency (254) 750-7500. Personnel & Recruiting Unit: (254) 750-7510 or 1-800-299-JOBS (5627), Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., pdpersonnel@wacotx.gov. Recruiters named on Employment: Investigator Danny Pilgrim, (254) 750-7524, dannyp@wacotx.gov; Investigator David Ohms, (254) 750-7576, davido@wacotx.gov.

The hub says the department began with the election of a Town Marshall in 1871. Directory established is 1871. The hub says the department responds to over 100,000 calls for service a year. That is hub prose, not a roster integer. Directory calls stays 0. Directory sworn stays 0. Directory stations stays 0. A chief name is not printed as a roster line on the hub this retrieval.

The live apply door

The cadet window on NEOGOV 5344313 is closed. Watch Employment and governmentjobs.com/careers/wacotx for the next beginning-position card. Use the wacotx slug. Selection Process says anyone who does not have a preliminary application on file will not be allowed to take the Civil Service Entrance Exam.

The Waco PD listing on this site says "No open posting recorded" and no dollar. The Employment page still says "Applications for new officers are now open." The Police Department hub still says "Deadline to apply for new officers is July 9, 2026." Those two city lines sit next to the closed card. The hub now-open line is not a live cadet door.

Lateral transfers are advertised as always open on Employment. About the Position is the laterals page. TCOLE Statewide Vacancies did not reprint Waco PD this retrieval.

Minimum requirements

NEOGOV 5344313:

  • High school diploma or GED equivalent
  • Fifteen (15) hours of college credit from an accredited institution with at least a 2.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale, OR two (2) years of active-duty military experience from the US Armed Forces with an honorable discharge
  • Must be a minimum of twenty (20) years of age to apply, must be 21 by the Police Academy completion date
  • Valid Texas driver license
  • United States citizen

Requirements & Disqualifiers prints a different age line: must be 21 years of age by the applicable academy state exam date (TCOLE). It also prints a different college waiver: honorable discharge after at least 24 months of continuous active duty, or 24 months continuous experience as a paid, full-time police officer. Those two age lines sit together. They are not one number. Military papers waive college when they apply. Not every applicant has to be a veteran.

An applicant for a beginning position must successfully pass the TCOLE certification within 12 months of passing the eligibility exam. That is not a TCOLE Basic Peace Officer license at apply.

The NEOGOV age is 20 to apply and 21 by academy completion. Requirements prints 21 by the academy state exam date (TCOLE). TCOLE's own floor is 21, or 18 with an associate's degree, 60 semester hours, or an honorable discharge after two years of active service (37 TAC 217.1(b)(1)(A)). Waco's academy-completion door and the Requirements academy-exam door are not the same measuring point as TCOLE's 18-with-waiver floor. Read TCOLE peace officer license requirements.

Must be a United States Citizen on NEOGOV and Requirements is Waco PD's hiring rule. TCOLE also licenses a legal permanent resident who is an honorably discharged veteran with two years of service and has applied for citizenship (37 TAC 217.1(b)(17)).

A valid Texas driver license on NEOGOV is Waco PD's hiring rule, not a TCOLE minimum. TCOLE's floor is that you are not prohibited from operating a motor vehicle (37 TAC 217.1(b)(8)).

NEOGOV 5344313 and Requirements & Disqualifiers do not reprint a Class A / Class B table this retrieval. TCOLE makes a Class A conviction a lifetime bar and puts the ten-year lookback on Class B only (37 TAC 217.1(b)(4), (b)(6)). Family violence bars on community supervision as well as conviction (217.1(b)(7)). That TCOLE floor is the license gate even if the city pages name no Class A line.

Recruits reach the Texas Basic Peace Officer exam after MCCLEA, not at apply.

The test, a Physical Fitness Assessment

Written exam first. About the Position names a study booklet.

Veterans points: five extra points on a passing exam with honorable discharge, at least one year of service, and a DD-214 Long Form (Member 4) by the background-packet deadline.

The Physical Fitness Assessment is the same day, after a passing written exam. Pass/fail. Same course for all applicants, without regard to age or gender. Employment Fitness Test names the events: exit a patrol car, run about 300 yards with obstacles, climb a 6-foot chain-link fence, stair climb (6 steps up and 6 down), terrain dip, navigate under two tables with about 30 inches of clearance, two 12-inch jumps, then drag an approximately 150-pound dummy about 15 feet. The applicant must pass the required tests during a single session. No time cap is printed. Not CPAT.

Then: background packet, background investigation including a polygraph, psychological examination, six-member Oral Interview Board, interview with the Chief of Police, city medical.

Academy length

Training: recruits attend the Basic Peace Officer Certification program at the McLennan Community College Law Enforcement Academy (MCCLEA), 7601 Steinbeck Bend Road. Approximately 20 weeks. Classes begin in January and July. Hours primarily Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. All uniforms and equipment for the Academy are provided, per About the Position.

After MCCLEA: six weeks of in-house training at the Waco Police Academy. Then 16 weeks in the Field Training Program. Probationary officers lose probationary status after one year of employment as a commissioned officer. NEOGOV: a beginning-position applicant serves a 12-month probationary period after being commissioned.

See What to expect at a Texas police academy.

Laterals

About the Position is the laterals page. Commissioned officers employed in good standing, or employed in good standing within the last 12 months, may apply as Police Officer. They complete the same selection process and are not required to take the Civil Service Entrance Exam for Beginning Position. Depending on years of continuous service and the size of the department worked for, eligible lateral transfer officers may start at a two-year or five-year officer's pay. On the FY 2025-2026 schedule that is Year 2 $40.60 an hour or Year 5 $44.37 an hour. Additional certification or education pay begins after the one-year probationary period.

NEOGOV 5344313 also prints a licensed-under-2-years door: applicants who currently hold a TCOLE Peace Officer License and have less than 2 years of continuous service as a commissioned Peace Officer are eligible to apply as Entry Level Police Officer and will not be required to attend the Academy. About the Position prints a third door: current TCOLE license, not currently commissioned, may qualify for a modified Academy. Print all three. Those three doors are not averaged into one lateral band.

The hub names hiring bonuses. General $7,500 ($2,500 upon graduation, $2,500 after FTO, $2,500 after probation). Out-of-state lateral $10,000. TCOLE-certified lateral $15,000. Relocation expense up to $3,000. A minimum time of service is required to keep the hiring incentive bonus.

No live lateral requisition sat on keywords=police this retrieval. Employment still says lateral transfers can apply at all times.

Pay and benefits

Dated recruit cell, FY 2025-2026 schedule effective 10/01/2025: Recruit $32.89 an hour. NEOGOV Starting Pay $32.8959 an hour. Commissioned $38.28. Year 1 $39.42.

Certification / degree pay, monthly, after probation: Intermediate or Associate $100. Advanced or Bachelor's $150 (degree must be job-related). Master Peace Officer $200. Bilingual pay $75 per month after department testing. Shift differential when more than 50 percent of the assigned shift is after 6 p.m. and before 6 a.m. Longevity is a single November 1 payment (1 year $50; 2 years $100; 3-4 years $1,000; 5-9 years $1,250; 10-14 years $1,500; 15+ years $2,000).

Vacation 18 paid days per year on 8-hour days. Holidays 12. Patrol work shift: four 10-hour work days. Sick leave 15 working days annually, unlimited accrual. TMRS: officers eligible to retire after 20 years of service. The city matches the employee's contribution 2 to 1. That TMRS line is the city plan. It is not a Waco Fire pension.

Sources, used 2026-08-22

Ready to start your law enforcement career?

Ready to Serve helps you track certifications, build fitness, and get application-ready.

Create Free ProfileExplore Careers