Home › Police pay › California › Carlsbad Police Department
Carlsbad 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.
Carlsbad Police Department starts at $109,120 a year — about $52.46 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $42,435 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $40,980 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $98,554 somewhere at average prices — $10,565 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 159 against a national average of 100, where goods are 106. 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 isCarlsbad Police Department reported 136 sworn officers and 54 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 113,239.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 Carlsbad says about itself
As the City of Carlsbad continued to annex more land over the years, the Police Department grew from one sworn police officer in 1952 to 10 officers by 1971 and to 54 officers by 1981.
What Carlsbad does
The Carlsbad Police Department serves the city of Carlsbad, California, on the north San Diego County coast. It has grown from one sworn officer in 1952 to more than 160 members today, working from the Carlsbad Public Safety Center completed in 1986. Its officers are represented by the Carlsbad Police Officers Association, whose agreement puts patrol and dispatch on a three-day twelve-hour schedule within a fourteen-day federal work period and prices a separate Police Recruit range beneath the sworn one.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. City of Carlsbad, CPOA Hourly Salary Schedule effective January 1, 2026 — Range 36, Police Officer, Step 1: $52.4613 hourly. — open the source document
$52.4613 an hour is the City's own Step 1 rate for range 36 and IS THE ONLY FORM THE CITY PUBLISHES IT IN - the schedule carries no annual column. $109,119.50 is that rate at 2,080 hours, AND THE 2,080 IS NOT AN ASSUMPTION HERE: the association agreement fixes the work period at 80 hours in fourteen days - "three 12-hour shifts during one of the workweeks in a two-week pay period and three 12-hour shifts plus one 8-hour shift during the other workweek in the pay period, for a total of 80 hours worked in the pay period" - and 80 hours over twenty-six pay periods is 2,080 exactly. The twelve-hour roster does not change the annual hours. THE RECRUIT CLASS IS ON THE SAME SCHEDULE AND IS NOT THE FIGURE: Range 90 Police Recruit, Step 1, $44.5235 an hour on the same dated table. THE FIGURE IS DATED BY THE SCHEDULE ITSELF, 1 January 2026, and is the table in force today. A NOTE ON THE ROUTE, BECAUSE THIS FILE RECORDED A HARDER ONE: the Laserfiche DocView link was never needed - the City's Human Resources compensation page renders and links the agreement, the side letter and the schedule as ordinary documents on the City's own origin. The egovlink contamination risk with Carlsbad, NEW MEXICO never arose.
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.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
Entry pay through 2027
Every point is the entry-class annual base printed in the agency’s own pay document. Base pay only — no shift differential, incentives or allowances.
How this level compares
Where Carlsbad 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. Carlsbad starts at $109,120, so $40,980 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Carlsbad Police Department officer make?
Carlsbad Police Department starts a new officer on $109,120 a year, about $52.46 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 Carlsbad, CPOA Hourly Salary Schedule effective January 1, 2026 — Range 36, Police Officer, Step 1: $52.4613 hourly..
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #60 of 278 agencies we have verified in California — 218 pay less, 59 pay more in the state — and #62 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $42,435 above, and against other municipal agencies $40,980 above.
Compare with another department
Put Carlsbad 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 CA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Carlsbad | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$54,500 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$40,324 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$38,823 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$34,884 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$33,976 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$31,904 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$30,620 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$29,845 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$29,141 | #9 |
| 10 | Los Gatos Police Department | Municipal | 34 | $132,394 | +$23,274 | #10 |
| 11 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$23,144 | #11 |
| 12 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$22,916 | #12 |
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.
Scan to install
