At first glance, Crandall appears to maintain an unusually large police force for a city with fewer than 7,000 residents.
The Crandall Police Department currently identifies itself as having 28 full time sworn police officers, according to the city’s most recent police officer recruitment posting.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) estimates Crandall’s population at 6,751 as of January 1, 2026.
Dividing those two figures yields 4.15 full time sworn officers for every 1,000 city residents.
That number, however, requires an important qualification.
Crandall Police Serve a Much Larger Area
Crandall’s 28 officers do not serve only the population living within the city’s municipal boundaries. Through interlocal agreements, the Police Department also provides law enforcement services to Heartland, Wildcat Ranch, Highbridge and Eastland.
According to the department’s own recruiting materials, Crandall police serve an estimated population of approximately 15,000 residents across the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction combined.
Applying that broader service population produces a markedly different ratio:
28 officers ÷ 15,000 residents = approximately 1.87 officers per 1,000 people.
That figure aligns far more closely with staffing levels reported by several comparable North Texas cities.
This distinction matters. Dividing the entire Police Department’s headcount by Crandall’s city limit population alone overstates the department’s effective presence for residents within city limits, since a meaningful share of the force is devoted to contracted service areas outside the city.
The city’s budget reflects this reality as well. Police payroll and service expenses are tracked separately for Crandall’s core operations and for contract areas including Heartland, Wildcat Ranch and Eastland.
Publicly available city records reviewed for this report do not include a current breakdown showing how many of the 28 officers are specifically assigned to Crandall proper versus each individual outside service area.
As a result, the 4.15 per 1,000 figure is mathematically accurate but should not be interpreted as Crandall’s true city only staffing ratio.
Staffing Has Increased Over Time
The department’s growth trajectory is easier to document with precision.
Recruiting materials from August 2024 described the department as having 25 full time officers and two reserve officers. As of an October 2025 posting, the department was still advertising 25 full time officers.
The most recent posting, dated July 28, 2026, lists 28 full time sworn officers — an increase of three officers, or 12 percent, over the previously published staffing level.
Population growth, meanwhile, continues to accelerate. NCTCOG estimated Crandall’s population at 5,749 residents in January 2025 and 6,751 in January 2026, an increase of 1,002 residents, or 17.4 percent, in a single year.
Measured against the 2020 Census figure of 3,860 residents, Crandall’s 2026 population estimate represents growth of nearly 75 percent in six years. Adding officers is therefore only part of the equation. The department must continue expanding capacity simply to keep pace with the number of new residents and neighborhoods entering the city and its service area.
How Crandall Compares to Nearby Cities
Direct comparisons between police departments require caution, since municipalities report staffing differently. Some publish actual filled positions, while others publish authorized or budgeted positions, and contract policing arrangements such as Crandall’s can further complicate simple per capita calculations.
With that caveat, nearby communities offer useful context:
| City | Sworn Staffing Figure | 2026 Population | Officers per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crandall (city limits calculation) | 28 | 6,751 | 4.15 |
| Crandall (approximate service population) | 28 | ~15,000 | 1.87 |
| Kaufman | 18 | 7,938 | 2.27 |
| Farmersville | 11 current | 5,742 | 1.92 |
| Caddo Mills | 11 approved municipal positions | 6,358 | 1.73 |
Farmersville also reports 13 authorized sworn positions, meaning its ratio would rise to approximately 2.26 per 1,000 if every authorized position were filled.
These comparisons do not include county deputies, constables, or independent school district police departments. That omission is notable in communities such as Crandall and Caddo Mills, where local school districts maintain their own law enforcement agencies.
Crandall Does Not Actually Have 4.15 Officers Available Per 1,000 Residents
The headline figure requires context to be understood accurately.
If the question is how many Crandall police officers exist for every 1,000 people living within the city limits, dividing 28 by 6,751 produces 4.15. But that calculation assumes all 28 officers exist solely to serve those 6,751 residents, which is not the case.
Crandall has effectively built a regional policing operation that extends service to multiple developments beyond the traditional city population. When measured against the department’s own approximate service population of 15,000, the ratio falls to 1.87 officers per 1,000 residents — a figure roughly in line with several comparable small Texas departments, and arguably a more accurate reflection of the department’s actual workload.
Growth Remains the Larger Question
Crandall has expanded its full time sworn force from 25 to 28 officers, a meaningful increase for a city undergoing extraordinary residential development. Population growth, however, shows no sign of slowing at 6,751 residents.
Continued subdivision development, commercial growth, and expansion throughout the surrounding service area are likely to generate additional traffic stops, collisions, calls for service, investigations and emergency responses, regardless of where the city limit line falls.
That reality raises a more consequential question than today’s staffing ratio: can police staffing continue to expand at the same pace as Crandall itself?
For now, available figures show a department that has added personnel while also assuming responsibility for policing a community and service area growing at an exceptionally rapid rate.
