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Caldwell 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.
Caldwell Police Department starts at $59,696 a year — about $28.70 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $6,989 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $8,444 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Idaho run about 5% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $62,513 would somewhere at average prices — $2,817 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 70 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isCaldwell Police Department reported 86 sworn officers and 17 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.1 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 76,553.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 Caldwell says about itself
The mission of the Caldwell Police Department is to preserve peace and safety while pursuing justice with compassion and respect, to guard the life, property, and constitutional rights of all, to encourage individual responsibility, and to promote community involvement.
What Caldwell does
Caldwell Police Department provides professional municipal law-enforcement services focused on protecting life and property, crime prevention and investigation, traffic safety and community engagement. Official City materials emphasize responsive service, public trust and cooperation between police and the community
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Caldwell official Entry — open the source document
Opened 10 June 2026; official posting explicitly states $28.70/hour for Entry Level Officer with No Certification; the $31.59-$42.12 range is lateral-only. No separate immediate post-academy increase is established, so the documented entry rate is $59,696
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 Caldwell 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. Caldwell starts at $59,696, so $8,444 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Caldwell Police Department officer make?
Caldwell Police Department starts a new officer on $59,696 a year, about $28.70 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 Caldwell official Entry.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Idaho?
It ranks #17 of 54 agencies we have verified in Idaho — 37 pay less, 16 pay more in the state — and #1,596 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $6,989 below, and against other municipal agencies $8,444 below.
Compare with another department
Put Caldwell 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 ID
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Caldwell | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun Valley Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $75,005 | +$15,309 | #675 |
| 2 | Blaine County Sheriff's Office | County | 20 | $74,526 | +$14,830 | #697 |
| 3 | Hailey Police Department | Municipal | — | $72,280 | +$12,584 | #797 |
| 4 | Boise Police Department | Municipal | 326 | $69,514 | +$9,818 | #965 |
| 5 | Meridian Police Department | Municipal | 109 | $67,621 | +$7,925 | #1,085 |
| 6 | Post Falls Police Department | Municipal | 52 | $67,330 | +$7,634 | #1,106 |
| 7 | Coeur d'Alene Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $66,872 | +$7,176 | #1,130 |
| 8 | Kootenai County Sheriff's Office | County | 104 | $65,291 | +$5,595 | #1,239 |
| 9 | Ada County Sheriff's Office | County | 220 | $64,896 | +$5,200 | #1,270 |
| 10 | Nampa Police Department | Municipal | 154 | $64,626 | +$4,930 | #1,286 |
| 11 | McCall Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $63,773 | +$4,077 | #1,332 |
| 12 | Moscow Police Department | Municipal | 30 | $63,544 | +$3,848 | #1,344 |
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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