Home › Police pay › Rhode Island › Cranston Police Department
Cranston 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.
Cranston Police Department starts at $63,309 a year — about $30.44 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $3,376 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $4,831 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Rhode Island run about 2% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $61,898 somewhere at average prices — $1,411 less than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 147, where goods are 97. 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 isCranston Police Department reported 147 sworn officers and 30 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 84,734.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 Cranston says about itself
The Cranston Police Department is dedicated to the highest standard of excellence in promoting and maintaining a safe, secure and peaceful community, and is proud to be recognised as an accredited law enforcement agency by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and the Rhode Island Police Chiefs' Association. To better serve our community the department embraces the community oriented policing philosophy: our belief is that working in partnership with our citizens we can better meet the public safety needs of our community, to keep Cranston a vibrant city in which to live, work and visit. Our mission is simple: protect and serve the people of Cranston with integrity, transparency, and care.
What Cranston does
Cranston Police Department provides municipal police and law-enforcement services for Cranston.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. City of Cranston Proposed FY26 Budget salary schedule — open the source document
FY2026 City salary schedule includes Police Officer Grade 1 sworn-personnel salaries; the lowest published Police Officer salary is $63,309 and is used as the bottom officer figure. Class: Police Officer. Trainee class: No separate lower recruit/cadet salary identified in the FY2026 City salary schedule. FY2026 City salary schedule expressly classifies Police Officer positions as Sworn Personnel.
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 Cranston 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. Cranston starts at $63,309, so $4,831 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Cranston Police Department officer make?
Cranston Police Department starts a new officer on $63,309 a year, about $30.44 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 Cranston Proposed FY26 Budget salary schedule.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Rhode Island?
It ranks #13 of 17 agencies we have verified in Rhode Island — 4 pay less, 12 pay more in the state — and #1,364 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $3,376 below, and against other municipal agencies $4,831 below.
Compare with another department
Put Cranston 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 RI
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Cranston | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management — Division of Law Enforcement / Environmental Police | State | 32 | $90,850 | +$27,541 | #249 |
| 2 | Smithfield Police Department | Municipal | 46 | $82,885 | +$19,576 | #407 |
| 3 | Rhode Island State Police | State | 267 | $81,579 | +$18,270 | #437 |
| 4 | Providence Police Department | Municipal | 435 | $81,468 | +$18,159 | #441 |
| 5 | North Providence Police Department | Municipal | — | $71,787 | +$8,478 | #829 |
| 6 | Burrillville Police Department | Municipal | 24 | $70,484 | +$7,175 | #908 |
| 7 | East Providence Police Department | Municipal | 86 | $69,155 | +$5,846 | #983 |
| 8 | Lincoln Police Department | Municipal | 40 | $69,000 | +$5,691 | #991 |
| 9 | Pawtucket Police Department | Municipal | 145 | $66,402 | +$3,093 | #1,167 |
| 10 | Warwick Police Department | Municipal | 169 | $65,739 | +$2,430 | #1,204 |
| 11 | North Kingstown Police Department | Municipal | — | $65,012 | +$1,703 | #1,255 |
| 12 | Portsmouth Police Department | Municipal | 39 | $64,358 | +$1,049 | #1,297 |
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
