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Centralia 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.
Centralia Police Department starts at $92,388 a year — about $44.42 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $25,703 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $24,248 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Washington run about 7% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $86,333 somewhere at average prices — $6,055 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 126 against a national average of 100, where goods are 104. 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 isCentralia Police Department reported 28 sworn officers and 10 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 19,231.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 Centralia says about itself
The Centralia Police Department is committed to protecting the quality of life in our community through professionalism, integrity and partnerships, and our vision is keeping Centralia safe through dedicated service and community partnerships. As a Community Oriented Policing agency, we look for innovative ways to address concerns in Centralia working to make our community a safer place to live, work, and play, and as part of the city's public safety team, the department provides professional enforcement, prevention, planning, and coordination of services that contribute to discouraging criminal behavior and enhance the image of our community. We know our community looks to us to provide the most professional and dependable police services possible, among them protecting people and property, arresting lawbreakers, and doing all we can to promote justice, and we believe that we can be most effective when we engage in partnerships with our community to address problems that contribute to criminal activity.
What Centralia does
The Centralia Police Department describes its work as protecting life and property, preventing and investigating crime, enforcing laws, responding to emergencies, and providing professional public-safety service. Official department materials emphasize community partnership, integrity, professionalism, respect, accountability, crime prevention, and maintaining public trust and quality of life
Where the figure comes from
Checked 15 August 2026. City of Centralia, Entry Level/Lateral Police Officer employment opportunity packet, 2026 rates — open the source document
Centralia publishes 2026 entry-level police officer rates of $7,699 to $9,152 a month, which is $92,388 a year at the bottom of the band, alongside educational incentive, special assignment incentive and longevity pay. Entry-level applicants test through Public Safety Testing and are placed on a Civil Service register. Officers receive twelve holidays, LEOFF retirement, longevity pay of 1.5 to 4 per cent of base, education incentive pay of 2 to 4 per cent, premium pay of 2 per cent for SWAT, traffic or anti-crime assignment, and a personally assigned patrol vehicle.
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 Centralia 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. Centralia starts at $92,388, so $24,248 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Centralia Police Department officer make?
Centralia Police Department starts a new officer on $92,388 a year, about $44.42 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 Centralia, Entry Level/Lateral Police Officer employment opportunity packet, 2026 rates.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Washington?
It ranks #31 of 92 agencies we have verified in Washington — 61 pay less, 30 pay more in the state — and #220 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $25,703 above, and against other municipal agencies $24,248 above.
Compare with another department
Put Centralia 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 WA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Centralia | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle Police Department | Municipal | 1,064 | $117,792 | +$25,404 | #38 |
| 2 | Redmond Police Department | Municipal | 81 | $110,435 | +$18,047 | #59 |
| 3 | Auburn Police Department | Municipal | 120 | $108,386 | +$15,998 | #68 |
| 4 | Lynnwood Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $106,371 | +$13,983 | #81 |
| 5 | Everett Police Department | Municipal | 207 | $102,516 | +$10,128 | #106 |
| 6 | Vancouver Police Department | Municipal | 226 | $101,832 | +$9,444 | #110 |
| 7 | Kirkland Police Department | Municipal | 108 | $101,218 | +$8,830 | #118 |
| 8 | Tukwila Police Department | Municipal | 76 | $101,064 | +$8,676 | #120 |
| 9 | Bothell Police Department | Municipal | 70 | $101,055 | +$8,667 | #121 |
| 10 | Mount Vernon Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $100,836 | +$8,448 | #125 |
| 11 | Kennewick Police Department | Municipal | 107 | $100,104 | +$7,716 | #128 |
| 12 | Edmonds Police Department | Municipal | 48 | $99,168 | +$6,780 | #140 |
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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