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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 $75,000 a year — about $36.06 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $6,610 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $3,736 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV run about 9% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $68,881 somewhere at average prices — $6,119 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 151 against a national average of 100, where goods are 105. Based on price levels for this metropolitan 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 264 sworn officers and 69 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 159,534.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
The mission of the Alexandria Police Department is to provide competent, courteous, and professional police services in partnership with our community.
What Alexandria does
Alexandria Police Department provides municipal patrol, investigative and public-safety law-enforcement services and trains Recruit Officers through academy and field-training phases.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. City of Alexandria Join APD / Police Training Division / Recruiting FAQ — open the source document
Current City Join APD page expressly states the starting salary for Police Officer I is $75,000. Certified/lateral applicants with qualifying experience start higher, so the published Police Officer I minimum is used for the no-experience entry figure. Class: Police Officer I. Trainee class: Recruit Officers attend the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Academy; no separate lower recruit salary is published on the current City starting-salary page. Alexandria Police Department recruits Police Officer I employees for sworn municipal law-enforcement service and sends Recruit Officers through academy and field training.
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.
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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 | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| 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 $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Alexandria starts at $75,000, so $3,713 above 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 $75,000 a year, about $36.06 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 City of Alexandria Join APD / Police Training Division / Recruiting FAQ.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Virginia?
It ranks #3 of 36 agencies we have verified in Virginia — 33 pay less, 2 pay more in the state — and #560 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $6,610 above, and against other municipal agencies $3,736 above.
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 VA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Alexandria | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arlington County Police Department | County | 299 | $90,012 | +$15,012 | #215 |
| 2 | Falls Church Police Department | Municipal | 32 | $76,400 | +$1,400 | #496 |
| 4 | Fairfax County Police Department | County | 1,390 | $74,035 | −$965 | #593 |
| 5 | Prince William County Police Department | County | 656 | $74,000 | −$1,000 | #595 |
| 6 | Loudoun County Sheriff's Office | County | 648 | $70,955 | −$4,045 | #727 |
| 7 | Leesburg Police Department | Municipal | 74 | $68,500 | −$6,500 | #834 |
| 8 | Prince William County Sheriff's Office | County | 656 | $66,596 | −$8,404 | #941 |
| 9 | Henrico County Police Division | County | 628 | $65,959 | −$9,041 | #968 |
| 10 | Fairfax County Sheriff's Office | County | 433 | $64,997 | −$10,003 | #1,025 |
| 11 | Richmond Police Department | Municipal | 608 | $63,360 | −$11,640 | #1,091 |
| 12 | Hanover County Sheriff's Office | County | 247 | $63,345 | −$11,655 | #1,093 |
| 13 | Chesterfield County Police Department | County | 499 | $62,751 | −$12,249 | #1,118 |
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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