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Baytown 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.
Baytown Police Department starts at $84,049 a year — about $40.41 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $17,364 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $15,909 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 $86,598 would somewhere at average prices — $2,549 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.
How big the department isBaytown Police Department reported 172 sworn officers and 86 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.0 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 86,149.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 Baytown says about itself
The mission of the Baytown Police Department is to carry out our sworn duties to protect and serve all citizens of our community by partnering with them to reduce crime and enhance quality of life, with honour, integrity and professionalism. Our vision is to serve and protect all people by judiciously enforcing the law and solving quality of life problems, recognising the sanctity of all human life, and to provide a safe and positive work environment where our employees are valued, enthusiastic owners of our mission. The department's ultimate goal is to be the safest city in Harris County.
What Baytown does
Baytown Police Department serves a Harris County industrial city on Galveston Bay with roughly 200 sworn officers and about 100 civilian staff, and states its goal plainly as being the safest city in Harris County. It has held Texas Police Chiefs Association Recognized status since 2012 — the 70th agency in the state to earn it — and its officers are represented by the Baytown Municipal Police Association, the designated bargaining entity for wages and benefits
Where the figure comes from
Checked 20 August 2026. City of Baytown — Baytown Police Department, Careers and Recruiting (Compensation: Current Annual Pay Scale) — open the source document
City of Baytown's own Careers and Recruiting page, Compensation section, Current Annual Pay Scale: Probationary $84,049, then Year 1 $87,003, Year 2 $90,070, Year 3 $93,205, Year 4 $96,475, Year 5 $99,835, Year 6 $103,826, Year 7 $107,976 and Year 8 $112,306. The probationary rate is the entry figure and it covers the academy: the same page states that the department pays its officers at the probationary scale while they are in the academy, and that Baytown's probationary pay is close to what officers go on to earn. No prior service is required, and this is not a lateral rate: experienced officers are credited a year of service on the scale for each completed year as a peace officer, which prices lateral entry separately and puts a hire with no service at Probationary.
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 Baytown 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. Baytown starts at $84,049, so $15,909 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Baytown Police Department officer make?
Baytown Police Department starts a new officer on $84,049 a year, about $40.41 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 Baytown — Baytown Police Department, Careers and Recruiting (Compensation: Current Annual Pay Scale).
Is that good pay for a police officer in Texas?
It ranks #11 of 151 agencies we have verified in Texas — 140 pay less, 10 pay more in the state — and #372 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $17,364 above, and against other municipal agencies $15,909 above.
Compare with another department
Put Baytown 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 Baytown | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allen Police Department | Municipal | 153 | $91,106 | +$7,057 | #241 |
| 2 | Frisco Police Department | Municipal | 270 | $90,750 | +$6,701 | #252 |
| 3 | Plano Police Department | Municipal | 400 | $90,729 | +$6,680 | #253 |
| 4 | Grand Prairie Police Department | Municipal | 287 | $90,000 | +$5,951 | #270 |
| 5 | Hurst Police Department | Municipal | 61 | $87,048 | +$2,999 | #322 |
| 6 | Lewisville Police Department | Municipal | 181 | $86,268 | +$2,219 | #335 |
| 7 | Coppell Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $84,968 | +$919 | #355 |
| 8 | Rockwall Police Department | Municipal | 95 | $84,448 | +$399 | #362 |
| 9 | Farmers Branch Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $84,440 | +$391 | #363 |
| 10 | The Colony Police Department | Municipal | 86 | $84,082 | +$33 | #371 |
| 12 | McKinney Police Department | Municipal | 248 | $83,992 | −$57 | #374 |
| 13 | Mesquite Police Department | Municipal | 260 | $83,869 | −$180 | #377 |
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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