The core of police activity in the Middle Ages and early modern period was the maintenance or restoration of a state of "good order" in a community. The most important means of doing this was the issuing of police regulations, which included fire, trade and security regulations or were directed against excessive luxury. The term "police" only emerged in the last quarter of the 15th century. A forerunner was the office of the beadle in Wiesbaden, who was a messenger, bailiff, prison guard and law enforcement officer all in one; in many places he was also responsible for enforcing sentences. The actual office of beadle is mentioned in 1376 in the "Merkerbuch", the oldest town and court register. Four "shooters" exercised a kind of low-level police power. Until the 18th century, the town was responsible for managing the police, and the influence of the sovereign was largely limited to issuing the relevant regulations.

The activities of the authorities intensified at the end of the 17th century. In 1709, Prince Georg August Samuel zu Nassau-Idstein issued regulations aimed at increasing the "good police", in particular the improvement of hygienic conditions with regard to spa guests. From 1728 onwards, we can speak of stricter intervention by the sovereign. An ordinance on the guarding of the gates and the introduction of night patrols dates from 1749. From the middle of the 18th century, ad hoc police regulations, often determined by current events, were replaced by a modernization of the administration and the first attempts at police legislation. According to an "Instruction" issued by the sovereign in 1757, a "Landkommissarius" (district commissioner), the head mayor and town mayor, the town clerk, one of the court clerks and a senior district assessor or secretary formed a police court, which was to abolish all "deficiencies and infirmities contrary to good policing" every 14 days at the town hall. Its duties included the supervision of weights and measures, the inspection of butchers, bakers, grocers and innkeepers, the supervision of street cleaning, the enforcement of penalties, the expulsion of beggars, the police for foreigners, etc.

A new quality was achieved with the establishment of the Princely Police Deputation, which was set up in 1769 as a supervisory authority for the entire country and was responsible for security issues, fire, trade, health and building police tasks, for improving the sanatoriums and for supervising the prison and police officers. It was also to handle the field police. For Wiesbaden, the police deputation had a special position: it was directly superior to the city and exercised control over the entire municipal police system. Moral and ethical offenses, however, were the responsibility of the consistory. A further division of powers took place with the establishment of the criminal court.

At the end of the 18th century, police legislation was extended and an apparatus of authorities suitable for enforcement was created. The municipality itself only had field and fire police duties. Until 1817, the authority consisted of a police director, who received his instructions directly from the government, as well as a criminal judge and a lawyer. The duties of the police now also included guild policing and the supervision of servants, the exercise of censorship and involvement in hospital administration. In 1812, the handling of the building police was transferred to a separate building police office. From 1822, a "Commissarius" was in charge of the police, to whom the police servants, night watchmen, lantern lighters, field wardens, meat inspectors and reserve grenadiers were subordinate. In addition to the usual health, trade and fire police duties, the exercise of censorship and the control of the civil prison, he was responsible for the registration of servants and foreigners. A constable and eight sergeants made up the team in 1823. In 1829, the authority was assigned the upper floor of the old town hall as its office. Due to the liberal aspirations after the 1848 revolution, the police became municipal again for a time. In 1850, the police department moved into several rooms in the Schützenhof. From 1854, the employees were uniformed. By ducal decree, the administration of the entire police force, including the local police, was transferred to a newly founded police directorate on 8 August 1857, which was directly subordinate to the state government and authorized to issue prohibitions and orders with the threat of certain fines or corresponding work and arrest penalties. The seat of this authority was the so-called Schenck'sche Haus. At this time, the town was divided into seven districts. The annual statistical report of 1910 puts the number of uniformed officers at 141 (one police inspector, five commissioners, seven constables, including one on horseback, 128 constables, including six on horseback). There were also 19 detectives. On July 15, 1904, the new police building at Friedrichstraße 15 (today no. 25) was handed over and renamed "Polizeipräsidium". The cost of the magnificent building amounted to 550,000 RM.

On May 15, 1924, the Wiesbaden police became municipal again on the instructions of the Inter-Allied Rhineland Commission. The area of responsibility also increased due to the incorporation of Biebrich, Schierstein and Sonnenberg in 1924 and a further nine suburbs in 1928: the management of the police in these places was transferred to Wiesbaden. In addition to the five existing police stations in Wiesbaden, there was now a 6th station in Biebrich, several branch stations in the suburbs, the Landjäger offices in Erbenheim and Rambach as well as two Landjäger and Schutzpolizeilandposts in Kloppenheim, Igstadt and Frauenstein. 436 police officers and twelve night watchmen as well as a raiding squad set up on 01.04.1928 completed the police administration, which was nationalized again on 02.07.1930 after the occupied territories in the Rhineland became free.

When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, a "State Commissioner for the Police in Hesse" took up his post as head of the entire police force in Hesse, including Wiesbaden. Parts of the police force were transferred to the Wehrmacht and SS in 1933-45. The bombing raid on the night of February 2 and 3, 1945 completely destroyed the front of the police headquarters facing Marktstraße. The occupying authorities immediately set about rebuilding the police force, following the American model, as a municipal police force.

After the Second World War, the authority became municipal again and was placed under the control of the Lord Mayor, who also acted as Chief of Police. On 22.06.1945, the command of the protective police was formed, with the half-destroyed police headquarters at Friedrichstraße 25 as its workplace. The next step was to gradually remove the traces of the destruction. In 1947, the first specialist criminal investigation departments were set up. In February 1955, a new wing on the upper floor was occupied. Stores were located on the first floor. On 01.01.1974, the police administration was transferred to the state of Hesse. The Wiesbaden police headquarters was given a larger area of responsibility and the districts of Untertaunus and Rheingau were added. From 1990 to 2001, the authority implemented a pilot project to improve the security situation; among other things, the previously separate security and criminal investigation departments were to be merged into a joint department and cross-sectional tasks were to be combined into an administrative and a logistical department. As part of this reform, the Wiesbaden police headquarters became the West Hesse police headquarters and one of seven newly created regional police headquarters in Hesse.

In accordance with the ordinance of December 18, 2000, the state police headquarters in the Hessian Ministry of the Interior is the highest police authority; the independent city of Wiesbaden, the Hochtaunus district, the Limburg-Weilburg district, the Main-Taunus district and the Rheingau-Taunus district were assigned to the West Hesse police headquarters as service areas. The regional service district for Wiesbaden is the Wiesbaden Police Directorate with five police stations in the city area. In October 2004, the police headquarters moved into a new building at Konrad-Adenauer-Ring 51, which houses, among other things, the head office and the departments of Operations, Central Services and Administration as well as the Criminal Investigation Department of the West Hesse Police Headquarters.

The first police president was Karl Egon Prinz zu Hohenlohe Schillingsfürst from 1896 to 1902. He was followed by the presidents Bernhard Wilhelm Albrecht Schenck (1902-1917), Alexander Alberti (1918-1919), Viktor Krause (1919-23), Otto Froitzheim (1926-33), Adolf von Gablenz (1933-45), Magnus Heimannsberg (1945-48), Herbert Becker (1948-63), Dr. Karl Ender (1963-85), Dr. Horst Schedler (1985-87), Woldemar Kentmann (1987-91), Wolfhard Hoffmann (1991-95), Norbert Thomas (1995-99), Peter Frerichs (1999-2010), Robert Schäfer (2010-15) and, since 2015, Stefan Müller.