On July 28, 1853 the City of Waterbury established its own official police force consisting of twenty-five men serving under the command of Waterbury's first Chief of Police Samuel Warren. Having the official title "Constable", these first police officers were paid between fifteen and twenty-five cents per hour. Two weeks after the Police Department was created it moved into its first Headquarters, a wooden building on Brook Street.
Today, the Waterbury Police Department employs some three hundred and fifty men and women in an effort to provide citizens with the highest quality police services.
The past one hundred and fifty years have witnessed many changes within the Waterbury Police Department. Although the styles of the uniforms, size and shapes of the patrol vehicles, locations of Headquarters facilities, and demographics of the Police Department have changed, one thing has not, the dedication to service and hard work of its members.