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Bismarck 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.
Bismarck Police Department starts at $63,123 a year — about $30.35 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $5,267 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $8,141 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Bismarck, ND run about 9% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $69,347 would somewhere at average prices — $6,225 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 75 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isBismarck Police Department reported 128 sworn officers and 28 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 78,814.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.
About Bismarck
Bismarck Patrol Officers enforce federal, state and local laws and protect life and property. The City's official classification includes city patrol, criminal-activity and traffic detection, public assistance, crime prevention, criminal investigation, traffic, school-resource, training, warrants and accreditation functions
Shifts at Bismarck
Patrol Operations covers Bismarck 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Officers are assigned to either Day Shift, Power Shift or Evening Shift, each to a specific area or “beat” of the city.
A power shift overlaps the day and evening watches to cover the busiest hours, so it does not sit neatly in a three-watch grid and is easy to mis-plan on a paper roster. BlueShifts lets you set the actual start and finish you were given rather than a generic day or night, so an overlapping watch shows up in its true place against your family's week.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Bismarck offici — open the source document
Opened 17 December 2025 and current in the 2026 hiring cycle; official Patrol Officer minimum $63,122.84 annually. The application accepts candidates who are not currently North Dakota licensed peace officers, and qualifying education/military routes do not require prior law-enforcement experience. Experience-based placement and add-ons are excluded
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 Bismarck 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. Bismarck starts at $63,123, so $8,164 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Bismarck Police Department officer make?
Bismarck Police Department starts a new officer on $63,123 a year, about $30.35 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 Bismarck offici.
Is that good pay for a police officer in North Dakota?
It ranks #7 of 9 agencies we have verified in North Dakota — 2 pay less, 6 pay more in the state — and #1,104 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $5,267 below, and against other municipal agencies $8,141 below.
What shifts do Bismarck Police Department officers work?
Patrol Operations covers Bismarck 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Officers are assigned to either Day Shift, Power Shift or Evening Shift, each to a specific area or “beat” of the city. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Bismarck 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 ND
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Bismarck | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | North Dakota Highway Patrol | State | 165 | $73,332 | +$10,209 | #614 |
| 2 | Grand Forks Police Department | Municipal | 91 | $69,326 | +$6,204 | #797 |
| 3 | Fargo Police Department | Municipal | 185 | $68,494 | +$5,372 | #836 |
| 4 | North Dakota Game and Fish Department — Enforcement Division | State | — | $65,808 | +$2,685 | #977 |
| 5 | Williston Police Department | Municipal | 64 | $65,520 | +$2,397 | #990 |
| 6 | West Fargo Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $64,376 | +$1,253 | #1,046 |
| 8 | Richland County Sheriff's Office | County | 18 | $62,213 | −$910 | #1,148 |
| 9 | Dickinson Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $60,345 | −$2,778 | #1,220 |
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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