City Council Meeting
Wednesday, January 28, 2026
What Item L8 Is
City Council will hear a presentation from Police Chief James Waters on the Princeton Police Department’s 2025 activity.
The presentation covers:
• overall police operations during 2025
• the department’s required annual racial profiling report under Texas law
This is an informational update.
There is no vote and no new policy or ordinance attached to this item.
Cost to Taxpayers
There is no direct cost tied to this agenda item.
Council is not being asked to approve new spending here.
Why This Matters Now
Princeton’s population is growing very quickly.
• In 2025, the U.S. Census Bureau identified Princeton as the fastest-growing city in the country
• The city’s population increased by about 30 percent in one year, from roughly 28,000 to more than 37,000 residents
• City projections in the report show an estimated 2026 population of 57,499
More residents mean more calls for service, more traffic on the roads, and more pressure on officers and support staff.
This report is one of the few public snapshots showing how the department is trying to keep up.
What Princeton Police Handled in 2025
Staffing at the end of 2025
• 45 sworn police officers
• 4 civilian staff members
Calls for service
• 28,346 total calls in 2025
• About a 34 percent increase compared to 2024
Response times
• Average response time: 6.59 minutes
• Average time spent on scene: 20.35 minutes
Arrests and crime snapshots
• 626 total arrests in 2025
• About a 6.5 percent increase from the year before
Selected incident totals reported for 2025:
• Theft: 147
• Burglary: 64
• Motor vehicle theft: 24
• Simple assault: 183
• Aggravated assault: 50
• Robbery: 4
• Rape: 23
Traffic accidents
• 801 traffic accidents occurred inside city limits during 2025
Racial Profiling Report, in Plain Language
Texas law requires every police department to collect and report traffic-stop data once a year.
For Princeton, the 2025 report:
• covers January 1 through December 31, 2025
• explains how traffic-stop information is collected
• summarizes racial and ethnic data required by statute
• includes analysis and any recommendations
City Council receives this report as part of its oversight and accountability role.
The report includes detailed tables breaking down traffic stops by race, ethnicity, reason for stop, and outcome.
Other 2025 Department Highlights
According to the presentation materials, in 2025 the department:
• hired 7 new patrol officers and 2 school resource officers
• promoted 5 sergeants and 1 lieutenant
• launched a community camera registration program
• deployed Flock Safety license plate reader cameras
• logged 6,388 hours of officer training
• processed 1,253 public records requests
Questions Residents May Want to Ask
If you attend or watch the meeting, questions worth listening for include:
• How does the department plan to keep response times stable as population continues to grow?
• What is contributing to the high number of traffic accidents?
• Do the traffic-stop and racial profiling data show any patterns that need attention?
• What staffing or other resources may be needed over the next few years?
Where to Read the Full Report
The full 2025 police report and the racial profiling data are included in the official City Council agenda packet for this meeting.
Any resident can download and review those documents for a deeper look at the numbers behind Item L8.
