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Clarksville 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.
Clarksville Police Department starts at $57,712 a year — about $27.75 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $8,973 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $10,428 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Clarksville, TN-KY run about 9% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $63,457 would somewhere at average prices — $5,745 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 73 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. Based on price levels for this metropolitan 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 isClarksville Police Department reported 328 sworn officers and 82 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 190,532.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 Clarksville says about itself
The primary objectives of the Clarksville Police Department are to ensure a high quality of life for our citizens by lowering the crime rate, and promoting safety.
What Clarksville does
Clarksville Police Officer 1 employees respond to calls for service and enforce local, state and federal laws. Duties include patrol, traffic stops, interviews, arrests, incident reports, affidavits and court testimony, with possible later assignment to specialized units or functions
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Clarksville official 2026 Police Officer 1 — open the source document
Opened 4 April 2026; continuous; official salary $57,712 annually. Police Officer 1 is the first of eight levels in the City's Police series. Experience-based/lateral placement and add-ons are excluded
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.
How this level compares
Where Clarksville 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. Clarksville starts at $57,712, so $10,428 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Clarksville Police Department officer make?
Clarksville Police Department starts a new officer on $57,712 a year, about $27.75 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 Clarksville official 2026 Police Officer 1.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Tennessee?
It ranks #16 of 26 agencies we have verified in Tennessee — 10 pay less, 15 pay more in the state — and #1,711 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $8,973 below, and against other municipal agencies $10,428 below.
Compare with another department
Put Clarksville 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 TN
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Clarksville | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brentwood Police Department | Municipal | 67 | $75,804 | +$18,092 | #640 |
| 2 | Metropolitan Nashville Police Department | Municipal | 1,546 | $70,904 | +$13,192 | #888 |
| 3 | Murfreesboro Police Department | Municipal | 313 | $67,922 | +$10,210 | #1,063 |
| 4 | Tennessee Bureau of Investigation | State | 484 | $67,764 | +$10,052 | #1,070 |
| 5 | Germantown Police Department | Municipal | 113 | $66,773 | +$9,061 | #1,135 |
| 6 | Smyrna Police Department | Municipal | 106 | $66,305 | +$8,593 | #1,171 |
| 7 | Tennessee Highway Patrol | State | — | $65,804 | +$8,092 | #1,201 |
| 8 | Hendersonville Police Department | Municipal | 134 | $65,654 | +$7,942 | #1,211 |
| 9 | Franklin Police Department | Municipal | 138 | $65,000 | +$7,288 | #1,256 |
| 10 | Chattanooga Police Department | Municipal | 397 | $60,460 | +$2,748 | #1,538 |
| 11 | Pigeon Forge Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $60,014 | +$2,302 | #1,565 |
| 12 | Collierville Police Department | Municipal | 115 | $60,000 | +$2,288 | #1,584 |
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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