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Alexandria Police Department entry pay
What this agency pays a new officer to start, and how that compares with the rest of the country.
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.
Alexandria Police Department starts at $48,271 a year — about $23.21 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $18,996 below the median of the 2,053 agencies on this list, and $20,515 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Louisiana run about 12% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $54,725 would somewhere at average prices — $6,454 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 63 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. Based on state-wide price levels, because this agency is not tied to a single metro area, from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024. The salary above is what the employer publishes; this line is our arithmetic on it, and nothing on this site is ranked on it.
How big the department isAlexandria Police Department reported 93 sworn officers and 30 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 42,654.A rate is only meaningful for a city department, where the population served is the city’s own. Reporting to the FBI is voluntary, so a count can reflect a partial return as easily as a small agency, and the FBI asks that agencies not be compared on staffing. Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, Full-time Law Enforcement Employees, 2025.
What Alexandria says about itself
Continuing its commitment of excellence to our citizens and officers, the Alexandria Police Department offers a variety of opportunities for police officers.
What Alexandria does
The Alexandria Police Department polices the city of Alexandria in Rapides Parish, central Louisiana, from 1000 Bolton Avenue. It runs its own academy - the Alexandria Regional Police Academy, which trains recruits for surrounding agencies as well as its own - and carries a wide set of assignments for a department of its size: patrol, criminal investigations, SWAT, K-9, motorcycles, community policing, intelligence, narcotics, crime scene investigation, a DWI task force and L.A.C.E. traffic patrol, hostage negotiation, honour guard, DARE and field training. Officers belong to the Municipal Police Employees Retirement System, with the City covering the whole retirement contribution and the whole health insurance premium, and the department runs a tuition reimbursement programme and an employee assistance programme. Its work period is set by Louisiana statute rather than by the city alone: R.S. 33:2213 authorises Alexandria to run a fourteen-day cycle of twelve-hour days.
Alexandria’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Louisiana Revised Statute 33:2213(N) sets this department's cycle by name: the city of Alexandria "may establish and implement a fourteen-day shift cycle... which shall require such officers to begin work shifts on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the first week of the cycle, and Wednesday and Thursday of the second week of the cycle. The workday shall consist of a twelve-hour shift on each of the specified days." Overtime is paid at time and a half, or credited as compensatory time on the same basis, for every hour past eighty in the fortnight. The same statute separately authorises twelve-hour cycles for the department's dispatchers.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
Seven twelve-hour days in a fortnight that never repeat by weekday - five one week, two the next - is the schedule a wall calendar gives up on. BlueShifts draws the fourteen days onto real months a year ahead, and counts the hours against the eighty-hour fortnight the statute sets.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 1 September 2026. Alexandria Police Department recruiting site, Police Officer Salary (New Officers): "The salary for recruit candidates starts at $40,800.00 during the Academy and increases to $48,271.00 (includes state supplemental pay) after Academy graduation" — open the source document
Class: Police Officer, post-academy. The Department's own recruiting site prices the rank twice: "The salary for recruit candidates starts at $40,800.00 during the Academy and increases to $48,271.00 (includes state supplemental pay) after Academy graduation," and a P.O.S.T.-certified hire receives the same $48,271 or lateral pay credit for up to four years of service. The post-academy figure is the one published, the same reading applied to Rutland City, Brandon and Pittsburg. NOTE ON THE MEASURE, because it is not pure base pay: the Department states the figure INCLUDES LOUISIANA STATE SUPPLEMENTAL PAY, the payment the state makes to municipal officers on top of city salary, so it is total cash rather than the city's own base. It is published as the employer states it. Trainee class: NO. Prior sworn service is NOT required - a new officer who has never worked in law enforcement qualifies for a $5,000 hiring incentive and starts at the academy rate, while certified hires are handled separately with a $25,000 incentive paid at years one and three, which is what proves $48,271 is the non-lateral post-academy rate. Degrees add $600 to $3,000 a year; night shift differential, special duty pay and paid overtime on top; the City covers 100 per cent of health insurance and of the officer's MPERS retirement contribution; eleven holidays. Department's own recruiting site, modified 12 January 2026, checked 1 September 2026.
Entry-level base salary only. Overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift
differentials, locality pay and lateral rates are excluded, so most officers earn more
than this.
How this level compares
Where Alexandria sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.
| Level | Lowest | Median | Highest | Agencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal | $33,280 | $68,786 | $163,619 | 1372 |
| County | $35,000 | $64,438 | $132,263 | 459 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,400 | $110,916 | 144 |
| Federal | $70,477 | $73,502 | $86,530 | 5 |
| Territory | $16,640 | $28,236 | $43,354 | 9 |
Federal agencies pay the most to start
The middle federal agency starts at $73,502 — about $4,700 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,100 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Alexandria starts at $48,271, so $20,515 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Alexandria Police Department officer make?
Alexandria Police Department starts a new officer on $48,271 a year, about $23.21 an hour on a 2,080-hour year. That is base salary before overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift differentials and locality pay, so most serving officers earn more. The figure comes from Alexandria Police Department recruiting site, Police Officer Salary (New Officers): "The salary for recruit candidates starts at $40,800.00 during the Academy and increases to $48,271.00 (includes state supplemental pay) after Academy graduation".
Is that good pay for a police officer in Louisiana?
It ranks #9 of 28 agencies we have verified in Louisiana — 19 pay less, 8 pay more in the state — and #1,919 of 2,053 nationally. Against the national median it is $18,996 below, and against other municipal agencies $20,515 below.
What shifts do Alexandria Police Department officers work?
Louisiana Revised Statute 33:2213(N) sets this department's cycle by name: the city of Alexandria "may establish and implement a fourteen-day shift cycle... which shall require such officers to begin work shifts on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of the first week of the cycle, and Wednesday and Thursday of the second week of the cycle. The workday shall consist of a twelve-hour shift on each of the specified days." Overtime is paid at time and a half, or credited as compensatory time on the same basis, for every hour past eighty in the fortnight. The same statute separately authorises twelve-hour cycles for the department's dispatchers. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Alexandria Police Department side by side with any other agency on the site — the two salaries, what each is worth once local prices are counted, and which comes out ahead.
The agencies either side of it
Other agencies in LA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Alexandria | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office | County | 916 | $58,200 | +$9,929 | #1,516 |
| 2 | Baton Rouge Police Department | Municipal | 544 | $58,000 | +$9,729 | #1,528 |
| 3 | Louisiana State Police | State | 1,192 | $57,680 | +$9,409 | #1,564 |
| 4 | Kenner Police Department | Municipal | 152 | $54,700 | +$6,429 | #1,696 |
| 5 | New Orleans Police Department | Municipal | 906 | $54,421 | +$6,150 | #1,708 |
| 6 | Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries — Enforcement Division | State | — | $53,997 | +$5,726 | #1,729 |
| 7 | Gretna Police Department | Municipal | 93 | $49,118 | +$847 | #1,898 |
| 8 | Lake Charles Police Department | Municipal | 138 | $48,500 | +$229 | #1,910 |
| 10 | Lafayette Police Department | Municipal | 278 | $45,000 | −$3,271 | #1,980 |
| 11 | Covington Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $43,672 | −$4,599 | #1,998 |
| 12 | Sulphur Police Department | Municipal | 61 | $43,553 | −$4,718 | #1,999 |
| 13 | Bossier City Police Department | Municipal | 200 | $42,576 | −$5,695 | #2,005 |
Base pay is only part of the year
Whatever the figure above, the rotation is what decides your year — which weekends you lose, when the changeovers land, what you can plan around. Save yours once and BlueShifts shows it a year ahead, with the off-duty jobs you take and what each one paid.
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