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Cleveland Division of Police 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.
Cleveland Division of Police starts at $66,467 a year — about $31.96 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $218 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $1,673 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Cleveland, OH run about 6% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $70,767 would somewhere at average prices — $4,301 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 79 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isCleveland Division of Police reported 1,186 sworn officers and 391 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 3.3 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 363,659.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 Cleveland says about itself
The mission of the Cleveland Division of Police is to serve as guardians of the Cleveland community. Guided by the Constitution, we shall enforce the law, maintain order, and protect the lives, property, and rights of all people.
What Cleveland does
Cleveland Division of Police says its mission is to serve as guardians of the Cleveland community. Guided by the Constitution, it enforces the law, maintains order and protects the lives, property and rights of all people, carrying out its duties with reverence for human life and in partnership with the community through professionalism, respect, integrity, dedication and excellence
Cleveland’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Article 10(a) of the agreement with the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association sets out Basic Patrol as an A, B and C platoon: "A Platoon works an eight (8) hour shift while B and C Platoons work ten (10) hour shifts." The ten-hour cycle runs four days on and four off, then five on and three off three times over, then five on and four off, then four on and four off, and starts again - forty-nine days in all. The eight-hour platoon runs six on and two off four times, then six on and three off, then five on and three off, over the same forty-nine days. Officers bid their shift annually by seniority.
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
The agency publishes the shift length but not a named cycle. These are the 10-hour rotations departments most often build on it: 4/10.
A forty-nine day cycle is seven weeks long, so nothing about it repeats inside a month and a wall calendar is no use at all - the fourth Tuesday is a work day in one cycle and a day off in the next. BlueShifts builds the forty-nine days once and fills in every month ahead, which is the difference between counting forward from a bid sheet and just looking.
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.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Cleveland official Patrol Officer - En — open the source document
Opened 13 July 2026; city explicitly states academy pay is $26.52/hour and, upon successful academy completion, Patrol Officer salary begins $66,466.75
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 Cleveland 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. Cleveland starts at $66,467, so $1,673 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Cleveland Division of Police officer make?
Cleveland Division of Police starts a new officer on $66,467 a year, about $31.96 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 Cleveland official Patrol Officer - En.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Ohio?
It ranks #38 of 53 agencies we have verified in Ohio — 15 pay less, 37 pay more in the state — and #1,161 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $218 below, and against other municipal agencies $1,673 below.
What shifts do Cleveland Division of Police officers work?
Article 10(a) of the agreement with the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association sets out Basic Patrol as an A, B and C platoon: "A Platoon works an eight (8) hour shift while B and C Platoons work ten (10) hour shifts." The ten-hour cycle runs four days on and four off, then five on and three off three times over, then five on and four off, then four on and four off, and starts again - forty-nine days in all. The eight-hour platoon runs six on and two off four times, then six on and three off, then five on and three off, over the same forty-nine days. Officers bid their shift annually by seniority. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Cleveland Division of Police 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 OH
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Cleveland | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Westlake Police Department | Municipal | — | $88,712 | +$22,245 | #291 |
| 2 | University Heights Police Department | Municipal | 29 | $82,259 | +$15,792 | #421 |
| 3 | Powell Police Department | Municipal | 21 | $81,426 | +$14,960 | #444 |
| 4 | Springfield Police Department | Municipal | 123 | $80,764 | +$14,297 | #468 |
| 5 | Stow Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $80,288 | +$13,821 | #486 |
| 6 | Cincinnati Police Department | Municipal | 971 | $79,359 | +$12,893 | #513 |
| 7 | Hilliard Police Department | Municipal | 63 | $79,248 | +$12,781 | #515 |
| 8 | Kettering Police Department | Municipal | 79 | $79,227 | +$12,760 | #517 |
| 9 | Canfield Police Department | Municipal | 21 | $79,002 | +$12,535 | #522 |
| 10 | Mentor Police Department | Municipal | — | $77,849 | +$11,382 | #563 |
| 11 | Dayton Police Department | Municipal | 342 | $77,411 | +$10,945 | #575 |
| 12 | West Chester Township Police Department | Municipal | 92 | $77,027 | +$10,560 | #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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