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Chicago 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.
Chicago Police Department starts at $63,636 a year — about $30.59 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $3,049 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $4,504 below the median for municipal agencies.
How big the department isChicago Police Department reported 11,542 sworn officers and 758 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 4.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 2,715,488.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 Chicago says about itself
To serve our communities and protect the lives, rights, and property of all people in Chicago. Our vision is that all Chicagoans are safe, supported, and proud of the Chicago Police Department.
What Chicago does
Chicago Police Department officers are appointed as Probationary Police Officers and enter the Police Training Academy, where recruits complete over 900 hours of basic recruit training — more than the Illinois state mandate — including law, ethics, report writing, vehicle stops, control tactics, firearms, physical fitness and law enforcement driving, alongside subjects the state does not require such as terrorism awareness and building entry tactics. The academy takes about six months and all training modules must be passed to graduate. Probation starts on entry to the academy and lasts eighteen months. Officers must be 21 at hire, hold a valid Illinois driver's license, and must be residents of the City of Chicago once hired.
Chicago’s rotation, in BlueShifts
The Department's own directive D20-02, issued 26 December 2025 and effective 8 January 2026, states that the tour of duty "will remain the 9.0 hour (4 on, 2 off) workday duty schedule: 8.5 hours plus a 30 minute uncompensated lunch period", made up of 45 minutes of roll call, 15 minutes of face-to-face relief, 7.75 hours of directed patrol and 15 minutes of check-off roll call. Officers hold a steady watch, selected annually: First Watch roll call at 2200 or 2300 and check-off at 0700 or 0800; Second Watch 0600 or 0700 to 1500 or 1600; Third Watch 1400 or 1500 to 2300 or midnight - odd-numbered beats start early, even-numbered beats late. Watch personnel are split between three regular day-off groups (61, 63, 65), bid annually, and the assignment runs on a TWENTY-EIGHT DAY POLICE PERIOD rather than a calendar month.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
Four on, two off is a six-day cycle, so it walks through the week - the day you are off this Tuesday is a day you work in three weeks. Add a twenty-eight-day police period that does not match the month and a watch that is fixed for the year, and the paper roster stops helping quickly. BlueShifts builds the six-day cycle once and fills every month ahead, keeps the police period alongside the calendar month, and holds the roll call and check-off times on the day itself.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 18 August 2026. City of Chicago 2026 Position & Salary Schedule, Chicago Police Department (CPD-61.400), sworn personnel grade D-1 — open the source document
Schedule effective January-December 2026. Title 9161 Police Officer (Probationary Police Officer), grade D-1: Step 1 entrance rate for the first 12 months $63,636; Step 2 after 12 months $90,816; Step 3 after 18 months $95,982. The step increases are triggered by ELAPSED TIME, not by academy graduation or certification, so the entrance rate is the entry figure. CPD's own recruiting site states officers start at $63,636. The probationary period begins on entry to the academy and runs 18 months; the academy itself is about six months.
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.
How this level compares
Where Chicago 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. Chicago starts at $63,636, so $4,504 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Chicago Police Department officer make?
Chicago Police Department starts a new officer on $63,636 a year, about $30.59 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 Chicago 2026 Position & Salary Schedule, Chicago Police Department (CPD-61.400), sworn personnel grade D-1.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Illinois?
It ranks #40 of 43 agencies we have verified in Illinois — 3 pay less, 39 pay more in the state — and #1,338 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $3,049 below, and against other municipal agencies $4,504 below.
What shifts do Chicago Police Department officers work?
The Department's own directive D20-02, issued 26 December 2025 and effective 8 January 2026, states that the tour of duty "will remain the 9.0 hour (4 on, 2 off) workday duty schedule: 8.5 hours plus a 30 minute uncompensated lunch period", made up of 45 minutes of roll call, 15 minutes of face-to-face relief, 7.75 hours of directed patrol and 15 minutes of check-off roll call. Officers hold a steady watch, selected annually: First Watch roll call at 2200 or 2300 and check-off at 0700 or 0800; Second Watch 0600 or 0700 to 1500 or 1600; Third Watch 1400 or 1500 to 2300 or midnight - odd-numbered beats start early, even-numbered beats late. Watch personnel are split between three regular day-off groups (61, 63, 65), bid annually, and the assignment runs on a TWENTY-EIGHT DAY POLICE PERIOD rather than a calendar month. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Chicago 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 IL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Chicago | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vernon Hills Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $94,460 | +$30,824 | #192 |
| 2 | Wilmette Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $93,156 | +$29,520 | #207 |
| 3 | Oak Park Police Department | Municipal | 91 | $92,716 | +$29,080 | #214 |
| 4 | Skokie Police Department | Municipal | 102 | $92,405 | +$28,769 | #219 |
| 5 | Aurora Police Department | Municipal | 328 | $92,248 | +$28,612 | #223 |
| 6 | Des Plaines Police Department | Municipal | 97 | $91,440 | +$27,804 | #235 |
| 7 | Highland Park Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $91,158 | +$27,522 | #240 |
| 8 | Naperville Police Department | Municipal | 186 | $90,965 | +$27,329 | #246 |
| 9 | Illinois State Police | State | 1,821 | $90,828 | +$27,192 | #251 |
| 10 | River Forest Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $90,106 | +$26,470 | #267 |
| 11 | Evanston Police Department | Municipal | 140 | $88,656 | +$25,020 | #292 |
| 12 | Elgin Police Department | Municipal | 203 | $88,274 | +$24,638 | #301 |
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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