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Austin 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.
Austin Police Department starts at $78,627 a year — about $37.80 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,237 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $7,363 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Texas run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $81,011 would somewhere at average prices — $2,384 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 88, where goods are 98. 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.
About Austin
Austin Police Department polices roughly 296 square miles for the tenth-largest city in the United States, with about 2,450 sworn and civilian personnel, and fields units unusual for an inland force including a Lake Patrol that is the principal law enforcement presence on Lady Bird, Lake Austin and Walter E. Long, alongside a mounted patrol and a Wellness Division that trains outside clinicians to work with officers
Austin’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Austin publishes it plainly on its recruiting pay page: patrol officers typically work four 10-hour days with three days off, and days off rotate every 28 days.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
WorkingOff
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.
Austin publishes the days on and off but not which are days and which are nights. In BlueShifts you choose that yourself — every shift can be a day, a night or a 24-hour tour, and the calendar marks it with a sun, a moon or a clock.
Four tens with three off is a seven-day cycle, so it does sit on the week - but Austin rotates which three days are yours every 28 days, which means your weekends move four times a year. BlueShifts builds the rotation once and carries it forward, so you can see next spring's days off today, and the overtime an officer picks up after field training lands in the same calendar.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 19 August 2026. City of Austin, Police Recruiting - Pay & Benefits — open the source document
The department's pay table gives $78,627 at graduation, then $92,647 at the first anniversary and $106,344 at the second, topping out at $143,578 at twenty-three years. The academy is paid separately, and the same page carries TWO cadet figures - the Regular Academy table says $67,000 a year during the roughly eight-month academy, while the salary-by-rank table says $60,000 - so the cadet rate is left out and the graduation figure, which is not in dispute, is the one published. Excluded as add-ons: bilingual or ASL $2,400 a year, field training officer $4,507, education $1,200 to $3,600, TCOLE Master Peace Officer $1,800, shift differential $3,600 to $4,200, and longevity of $107 a year of service to twenty-five years.
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.
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.
How this level compares
Where Austin 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. Austin starts at $78,627, so $7,340 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Austin Police Department officer make?
Austin Police Department starts a new officer on $78,627 a year, about $37.80 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 Austin, Police Recruiting - Pay & Benefits.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Texas?
It ranks #36 of 140 agencies we have verified in Texas — 104 pay less, 35 pay more in the state — and #439 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,237 above, and against other municipal agencies $7,363 above.
What shifts do Austin Police Department officers work?
Austin publishes it plainly on its recruiting pay page: patrol officers typically work four 10-hour days with three days off, and days off rotate every 28 days. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Austin 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 TX
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Austin | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allen Police Department | Municipal | 153 | $91,106 | +$12,479 | #192 |
| 2 | Frisco Police Department | Municipal | 270 | $90,750 | +$12,123 | #200 |
| 3 | Plano Police Department | Municipal | 414 | $90,729 | +$12,102 | #201 |
| 4 | Grand Prairie Police Department | Municipal | 287 | $90,000 | +$11,373 | #216 |
| 5 | Hurst Police Department | Municipal | — | $87,048 | +$8,421 | #264 |
| 6 | Lewisville Police Department | Municipal | 181 | $86,268 | +$7,641 | #276 |
| 7 | Coppell Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $84,968 | +$6,341 | #293 |
| 8 | Rockwall Police Department | Municipal | 95 | $84,448 | +$5,821 | #300 |
| 9 | The Colony Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,082 | +$5,455 | #306 |
| 10 | Baytown Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,049 | +$5,422 | #307 |
| 11 | McKinney Police Department | Municipal | 248 | $83,992 | +$5,365 | #309 |
| 12 | Mesquite Police Department | Municipal | 260 | $83,869 | +$5,242 | #312 |
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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