Waycross Police Department

Law enforcement in Waycross, Georgia began in 1884, a decade after the town's 1874 incorporation, according to the department's history, when a single town marshal was sworn in. By January 1889 the marshal commanded three policemen, and the City Council ordered regular officers to wear uniforms on duty. The council first split the marshal and police chief posts in 1890, then abolished and restored the chief's office several times over the following decades, and three times between 1925 and 1935 merged the police and fire chief roles, likely for budget reasons during the Great Depression. Early officers worked seven 12-hour days a week; a weekly day off arrived in the 1920s and a 40-hour week in early 1970. Georgia set minimum hiring and training standards in 1970. The department created a federally funded traffic enforcement unit in 1970, an early area drug squad in 1971 and a Crime Prevention Unit in 1974. The department says it earned national accreditation in July 1990, the 10th Georgia agency to do so, and today it works around the clock with uniformed patrol, criminal investigations, administrative services and special operations sections.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau (ACS 2023), Waycross city, GA has an estimated population of 13,813.