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Apex 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.
Apex Police Department starts at $62,524 a year — about $30.06 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $4,161 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $5,616 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in North Carolina run about 6% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $66,285 would somewhere at average prices — $3,761 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 81 against a national average of 100, where goods are 97. 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 isApex Police Department reported 104 sworn officers and 33 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.3 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 78,938.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 Apex says about itself
The dedicated professionals of the Apex Police Department will strive to be a benchmark of law-enforcement excellence through our innovative problem-solving efforts and tireless pursuit of personal and organizational improvement as we foster public trust.
What Apex does
The Apex Police Department serves the town of Apex, North Carolina, in Wake County, south-west of Raleigh. It runs its patrol on three named shifts - a day shift from 6am to 4pm, a mid shift from 1pm to 11pm and a night shift from 9pm to 7am - worked by six teams, Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, David, Edward and Frank, rotating across the week. The Department publishes a single hiring range for sworn officers with no separate non-certified rate, and states that rank advancement carries a five per cent increase.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. Town of Apex, Police Department Recruitment: "Hiring Range: $62,524-$76,606". — open the source document
$62,524 is the stated MINIMUM of the Town's own published hiring range for sworn Police Officer, and no arithmetic has been applied to it. The $76,606 top of the range is a ceiling and is not the figure. APEX PRICES NO CADET CLASS: the recruitment page publishes no separate non-certified, trainee or BLET rate, so there is no academy-gated step to choose between; the only other movement the page names is rank advancement carrying "a 5% pay increase", which is a promotion and not an entry step. Excluded from the figure: any incentive, differential or supplement listed apart from the hiring range. THE FIGURE CARRIES NO EFFECTIVE DATE. NEXT DOCUMENT: the Town of Apex classification and pay plan adopted with the annual budget, which North Carolina towns re-adopt each year and which would supply dated points.
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 Apex 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 | $68,140 | $163,619 | 1549 |
| County | $35,000 | $63,565 | $132,263 | 516 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,166 | $110,916 | 145 |
| 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 $5,400 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,900 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,300 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Apex starts at $62,524, so $5,616 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Apex Police Department officer make?
Apex Police Department starts a new officer on $62,524 a year, about $30.06 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 Town of Apex, Police Department Recruitment: "Hiring Range: $62,524-$76,606"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in North Carolina?
It ranks #7 of 53 agencies we have verified in North Carolina — 46 pay less, 6 pay more in the state — and #1,408 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $4,161 below, and against other municipal agencies $5,616 below.
Compare with another department
Put Apex 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 NC
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Apex | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Knightdale Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $67,363 | +$4,839 | #1,104 |
| 2 | Cary Police Department | Municipal | 194 | $65,104 | +$2,580 | #1,247 |
| 3 | Wake Forest Police Department | Municipal | 96 | $65,093 | +$2,569 | #1,248 |
| 4 | Appalachian State University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 36 | $64,084 | +$1,560 | #1,312 |
| 5 | North Carolina State Highway Patrol | State | — | $63,250 | +$726 | #1,368 |
| 6 | Huntersville Police Department | Municipal | 92 | $62,647 | +$123 | #1,400 |
| 8 | Fuquay-Varina Police Department | Municipal | 70 | $62,291 | −$233 | #1,430 |
| 9 | Johnston County Sheriff's Office | County | 124 | $62,213 | −$311 | #1,436 |
| 10 | Chapel Hill Police Department | Municipal | 82 | $61,451 | −$1,073 | #1,477 |
| 11 | Raleigh Police Department | Municipal | 713 | $61,417 | −$1,107 | #1,478 |
| 12 | Duke University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 57 | $60,195 | −$2,329 | #1,551 |
| 13 | Greensboro Police Department | Municipal | 582 | $59,509 | −$3,015 | #1,605 |
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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