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Barnstable 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.
Barnstable Police Department starts at $75,400 a year — about $36.25 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $8,715 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $7,260 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Massachusetts run about 6% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $71,296 somewhere at average prices — $4,104 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 152 against a national average of 100, where goods are 99. 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 isBarnstable Police Department reported 109 sworn officers and 27 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 49,944.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 Barnstable says about itself
The members of the Barnstable Police Department strive to work in partnership with our community in seeking out and solving problems in order to enhance our quality of life. We are committed to preserving the lives, property and rights of all our citizens through proactive policing strategies.
What Barnstable does
The Barnstable Police Department is the largest police department on Cape Cod, employing 120 sworn officers with approximately 14 civilian employees and 14 civilian dispatchers. It serves the Town of Barnstable across 76.3 square miles and seven villages - Barnstable, Centerville, Cotuit, Hyannis, Marstons Mills, Osterville and West Barnstable - with a year-round population of about 45,000 that more than doubles in summer, and runs specialty units including detectives, K-9, SWAT, a marine unit and prosecution. On 5 June 2025 the Barnstable Town Council voted unanimously to remove the Department from the Massachusetts civil service system.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 1 September 2026. Barnstable Police Department recruitment page, pay steps: "Step 1 / Academy Patrol Officer $75,400" — open the source document
Class: Step 1 / Academy Patrol Officer, the bottom step of the Department's own published patrol scale. Trainee class: NO - Step 1 is the rate for an officer at or out of the academy, not an academy stipend, and the Department publishes it as the first step of the same scale that runs through Senior and Master Patrol Officer. The figures appear on the Department's lateral-transfer page because that page sets out where a transferring officer is placed on the scale; Step 1 is the non-lateral entry step, the same reasoning already applied to Everett. Prior sworn service is not required for it.
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 Barnstable 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. Barnstable starts at $75,400, so $7,260 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Barnstable Police Department officer make?
Barnstable Police Department starts a new officer on $75,400 a year, about $36.25 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 Barnstable Police Department recruitment page, pay steps: "Step 1 / Academy Patrol Officer $75,400".
Is that good pay for a police officer in Massachusetts?
It ranks #5 of 19 agencies we have verified in Massachusetts — 14 pay less, 4 pay more in the state — and #655 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $8,715 above, and against other municipal agencies $7,260 above.
Compare with another department
Put Barnstable 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 MA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Barnstable | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Everett Police Department | Municipal | 120 | $95,568 | +$20,168 | #178 |
| 2 | Nantucket Police Department | Municipal | 40 | $92,144 | +$16,744 | #225 |
| 3 | Massachusetts State Police | State | 2,565 | $80,213 | +$4,813 | #491 |
| 4 | Tufts University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 52 | $75,962 | +$562 | #632 |
| 6 | Boston Police Department | Municipal | 2,172 | $71,861 | −$3,539 | #822 |
| 7 | Plymouth Police Department | Municipal | 108 | $67,927 | −$7,473 | #1,062 |
| 8 | West Stockbridge Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,797 | −$8,603 | #1,133 |
| 9 | Haverhill Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $66,652 | −$8,748 | #1,146 |
| 10 | Rowley Police Department | Municipal | 10 | $66,397 | −$9,003 | #1,168 |
| 11 | Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs — Environmental Police | State | — | $65,447 | −$9,953 | #1,222 |
| 12 | Brockton Police Department | Municipal | 179 | $63,971 | −$11,429 | #1,321 |
| 13 | Chicopee Police Department | Municipal | 138 | $63,169 | −$12,231 | #1,373 |
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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