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Who pays new officers the most

What a brand-new officer earns on day one. These are starting figures — after the academy, at the bottom of the pay scale, before you have moved up a single step. Base pay only: no overtime, no shift differential, no specialty or education pay. Every figure comes from an official source, not a salary estimate site.

Entry pay onlyEvery salary here is what an officer is paid on day one, out of the academy — base pay on a 40-hour week, with no overtime, shift differential, specialty or education pay counted. Nobody stays on it.

1,681agencies verifiedacross all 50 states, DC and territories

Lowest$16,640
Middle$68,390
Highest$163,619

Starting salary a year, base pay only. Every figure comes from an official source.

324,720sworn officersFBI-reported, 1,397 agencies

Active is the number of sworn officers an agency reported to the FBI for 2025. Authorized is the establishment its own staffing document funds. Where both are known, the badge shows active first.

Highest starting pay at each level

Municipalall 1046 →
Countyall 416 →
Special jurisdictionall 69 →
Stateall 143 →
Federalall 5 →
Territoryall 9 →
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Showing 25 of 1,681 See the statistics →

Pay by state

Where the 1,665 agencies are, and what they pay
Alaska — middle agency starts on $79,726 (11 agencies)Alabama — middle agency starts on $49,920 (21 agencies)Arkansas — middle agency starts on $55,068 (9 agencies)American Samoa — middle agency starts on $16,640 (1 agency)Arizona — middle agency starts on $65,873 (26 agencies)California — middle agency starts on $96,324 (222 agencies)Colorado — middle agency starts on $76,809 (35 agencies)Connecticut — middle agency starts on $72,881 (11 agencies)District of Columbia — middle agency starts on $74,505 (4 agencies)Delaware — middle agency starts on $70,000 (14 agencies)Florida — middle agency starts on $62,767 (141 agencies)Georgia — middle agency starts on $57,919 (25 agencies)Guam — middle agency starts on $36,588 (1 agency)Hawaii — middle agency starts on $83,808 (6 agencies)Iowa — middle agency starts on $69,264 (28 agencies)Idaho — middle agency starts on $54,080 (51 agencies)Illinois — middle agency starts on $78,083 (35 agencies)Indiana — middle agency starts on $66,968 (39 agencies)Kansas — middle agency starts on $57,741 (13 agencies)Kentucky — middle agency starts on $62,253 (8 agencies)Louisiana — middle agency starts on $38,646 (19 agencies)Massachusetts — middle agency starts on $71,860 (9 agencies)Maryland — middle agency starts on $68,359 (26 agencies)Maine — middle agency starts on $69,000 (19 agencies)Michigan — middle agency starts on $62,385 (38 agencies)Minnesota — middle agency starts on $81,265 (100 agencies)Missouri — middle agency starts on $60,486 (27 agencies)Northern Mariana Islands — middle agency starts on $21,219 (1 agency)Mississippi — middle agency starts on $54,000 (8 agencies)Montana — middle agency starts on $69,056 (23 agencies)North Carolina — middle agency starts on $54,610 (40 agencies)North Dakota — middle agency starts on $65,520 (9 agencies)Nebraska — middle agency starts on $67,620 (17 agencies)New Hampshire — middle agency starts on $63,960 (9 agencies)New Jersey — middle agency starts on $55,165 (15 agencies)New Mexico — middle agency starts on $59,675 (13 agencies)Nevada — middle agency starts on $64,022 (19 agencies)New York — middle agency starts on $62,657 (23 agencies)Ohio — middle agency starts on $71,656 (40 agencies)Oklahoma — middle agency starts on $60,000 (12 agencies)Oregon — middle agency starts on $76,611 (46 agencies)Pennsylvania — middle agency starts on $57,803 (23 agencies)Puerto Rico — middle agency starts on $28,236 (5 agencies)Rhode Island — middle agency starts on $69,000 (11 agencies)South Carolina — middle agency starts on $54,475 (16 agencies)South Dakota — middle agency starts on $66,456 (9 agencies)Tennessee — middle agency starts on $59,700 (12 agencies)Texas — middle agency starts on $72,847 (140 agencies)Utah — middle agency starts on $65,374 (31 agencies)Virginia — middle agency starts on $60,000 (36 agencies)U.S. Virgin Islands — middle agency starts on $40,953 (1 agency)Vermont — middle agency starts on $66,560 (7 agencies)Washington — middle agency starts on $88,925 (76 agencies)Wisconsin — middle agency starts on $67,454 (74 agencies)West Virginia — middle agency starts on $57,054 (10 agencies)Wyoming — middle agency starts on $64,328 (11 agencies)ALARAZCACOFLGAIAIDILINKSKYLAMAMEMIMNMOMSMTNCNDNENHNMNVNYOHOKORPASCSDTNTXUTVAVTWAWIWVWYCTDCDEMDNJRIAKAlaska — middle agency starts on $79,726 (11 agencies)HIHawaii — middle agency starts on $83,808 (6 agencies)PRPuerto Rico — middle agency starts on $28,236 (5 agencies)VIU.S. Virgin Islands — middle agency starts on $40,953 (1 agency)GUGuam — middle agency starts on $36,588 (1 agency)MPNorthern Mariana Islands — middle agency starts on $21,219 (1 agency)ASAmerican Samoa — middle agency starts on $16,640 (1 agency)Alaska and HawaiiTerritories, each at its own scale
  • Dots — level of government
  • Municipal
  • County
  • State
  • Federal
  • Territory
  • Statewide — one star representing all state-level agencies, centered on the state capitol.
  • Shading — what the middle agency there starts on
  • Under $50,000
  • $50,000 – $59,999
  • $60,000 – $69,999
  • $70,000 – $79,999
  • $80,000 and over

One dot per agency, colored by its level of government; the shading behind them is what the middle agency in that jurisdiction starts on, across the agencies this site holds a published figure for. Placement is by the county an agency reports from — the federal crosswalk supplying the coordinates works at county level, so forces sharing a county are drawn as a small cluster around it rather than stacked on top of one another. Hover a dot for the agency, its starting pay and its level; hover a state for its middle figure; click to open an agency's page. A state police force, game warden service or state enforcement arm has no one location — it works the whole state — so the 148 of them here are drawn as a star on each of the 55 capitals, the mark a capital carries on any map, rather than as dots at an address they do not have. Hover a star for how many, and open the state's page for each of them by name. Scroll or pinch to zoom in on a cluster, drag to move around it, and use the reset control to come back out. 16 of the 1681 are not shown: their agency identifier is not in the crosswalk, so there is no honest place to put them. They are counted everywhere else on this page.

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Every state we have verified an agency in, with how many. Each one has its own page: the middle figure, the range, how it compares with its neighbours, and every agency we hold there.

District of Columbia

Territories

Figures checked between 8 August 2026 and 23 August 2026. Every figure comes from an official source — the employer's own published pay information. Overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift differentials, locality pay and lateral rates are excluded — this is base salary only, so most officers earn more than the figure shown. Where an agency publishes both an academy rate and a post-academy rate, the post-academy rate is used. Pay is not comparable between places without cost of living: $55,000 in Honolulu and $55,000 in rural Virginia are not the same offer. More agencies are added as each one is verified, so an agency missing here has not been checked yet rather than found to pay less.

Common questions

How much do police officers make?

On this list of verified agencies, entry pay runs from $16,640 to $163,619 a year, with a median of $68,390. That is base salary only — overtime, court time, shift differentials and off-duty work are excluded, so most officers earn more than the figure shown.

Which state pays the most?

Of the 50 states where we have verified five or more agencies, CA has the highest median at $96,325, and LA the lowest at $38,646 — a gap of $57,678 a year for recognisably the same job.

Which agency pays the most to start?

Santa Clara Police Department in CA at $163,619. The lowest on this list is American Samoa Department of Public Safety at $16,640.

Where do these figures come from?

Every one comes from the employer's own published source — a class specification, a civil service posting or an agency careers page — not from a salary estimate site. Each row links to the document it came from.

Is this every agency in the country?

No. These are the highest-paying agencies we have verified, 1,681 of them so far, not a random sample. An agency missing here has not been checked yet rather than found to pay less, and the medians on this page therefore sit above a true national average.

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