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Blue Ash 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.
Blue Ash Police Department starts at $72,717 a year — about $34.96 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $6,032 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $4,577 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Ohio run about 7% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $78,381 would somewhere at average prices — $5,664 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 73 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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.
What Blue Ash says about itself
Police officers and dispatchers are on duty 24 hours a day for the protection of citizens, businesses, and their property.
What Blue Ash does
The Blue Ash Police Department serves the city of Blue Ash, Ohio, a north-eastern suburb of Cincinnati in Hamilton County, from the Municipal and Safety Center at 4343 Cooper Road. It is comprised of 36 full-time police officers, five auxiliary police officers, six dispatchers and three civilian support staff, under Chief Roger Pohlman, with officers and dispatchers on duty around the clock. Patrol officers work twelve-hour shifts, and the City publishes its whole six-step patrol pay plan by year alongside a $800 uniform stipend, $3,500 of college tuition reimbursement and voluntary fitness-test bonuses.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. City of Blue Ash, Police Department Salary and Benefits — patrol officer pay plan, 2025 hourly, Step A: $34.96 — open the source document
$34.96 an hour on a 2,080-hour year is $72,716.80. The City publishes an hourly pay plan and no annual figure, so the multiplication is the only arithmetic applied. Step A is the entry step and the City says so in its own hiring rule: 'If a new employee has related work experience and more than the minimum qualifications for the classification to which his position is assigned, he may be hired above the minimum rate of pay and may be paid at an appropriate step within the range' - so experience is what moves a hire OFF Step A, which is what makes Step A the no-experience rate. Trainee class: NOT PRICED - the City names no separate cadet, recruit or academy wage. Steps B through F, $41.70 to $46.94 in 2025, are later steps and are not used; note the unusually wide gap between Step A and Step B. Excluded from the figure: the $800 uniform stipend, $3,500 college tuition reimbursement, the voluntary fitness-test bonuses of $600, $300 and $150, holiday pay at twice the normal rate and the end-of-year bonus holiday cheque, court time, and off-duty detail work, which the City prices at $55 to $60 an hour. STALE BY ONE YEAR AND SAID PLAINLY: the pay plan's last column is 2025 and there is no 2026 column, so this is the most recent rate the City publishes rather than certainly the current one. NEXT DOCUMENT: the City of Blue Ash 2026 pay ordinance. SHIFT PATTERN PUBLISHED but incomplete: twelve-hour shifts, with no cycle named.
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 Blue Ash 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. Blue Ash starts at $72,717, so $4,577 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Blue Ash Police Department officer make?
Blue Ash Police Department starts a new officer on $72,717 a year, about $34.96 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 Blue Ash, Police Department Salary and Benefits — patrol officer pay plan, 2025 hourly, Step A: $34.96.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Ohio?
It ranks #23 of 53 agencies we have verified in Ohio — 30 pay less, 22 pay more in the state — and #779 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $6,032 above, and against other municipal agencies $4,577 above.
Compare with another department
Put Blue Ash 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 OH
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Blue | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Westlake Police Department | Municipal | — | $88,712 | +$15,995 | #291 |
| 2 | University Heights Police Department | Municipal | 29 | $82,259 | +$9,542 | #421 |
| 3 | Powell Police Department | Municipal | 21 | $81,426 | +$8,709 | #444 |
| 4 | Springfield Police Department | Municipal | 123 | $80,764 | +$8,047 | #468 |
| 5 | Stow Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $80,288 | +$7,571 | #486 |
| 6 | Cincinnati Police Department | Municipal | 971 | $79,359 | +$6,643 | #513 |
| 7 | Hilliard Police Department | Municipal | 63 | $79,248 | +$6,531 | #515 |
| 8 | Kettering Police Department | Municipal | 79 | $79,227 | +$6,510 | #517 |
| 9 | Canfield Police Department | Municipal | 21 | $79,002 | +$6,285 | #522 |
| 10 | Mentor Police Department | Municipal | — | $77,849 | +$5,132 | #563 |
| 11 | Dayton Police Department | Municipal | 342 | $77,411 | +$4,694 | #575 |
| 12 | West Chester Township Police Department | Municipal | 92 | $77,027 | +$4,310 | #584 |
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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