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Davis 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.
Davis Police Department starts at $93,122 a year — about $44.77 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $26,437 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $24,982 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $84,105 somewhere at average prices — $9,016 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 159 against a national average of 100, where goods are 106. 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 isDavis Police Department reported 58 sworn officers and 24 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 0.9 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 67,181.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 Davis says about itself
The mission of the Davis Police Department is to serve with pride, enforce the law and guard individual human rights. To achieve this mission, the department will model and pursue excellence by partnering with our community; investing in our employees to maintain the highest level of professionalism; being a leader in procedural justice, enacting restorative practices, and embracing our role as guardians of the community.
What Davis does
Davis Police Department officers perform community relations, crime prevention, enforcement, investigation and protection of life/property.
Shifts at Davis
The Davis Police Dispatch Division is comprised of 12 full-time employees. Dispatchers work 12-hour shifts. The Dispatch Center is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with a minimum staffing of 2 on each shift.
The agency publishes the shift length but not a named cycle. These are the 12-hour rotations departments most often build on it: Pitman, 4 on, 4 off, DuPont, Panama, 3-4-4-3.
Twelve-hour dispatch shifts with a minimum of two on every one is a rota where a single absence has to be covered immediately. BlueShifts holds the pattern and shows who is on.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 13 August 2026. $93,121.60 annual minimum. Official continuous Police Officer Lateral/Academy Graduate recruitment publishes $93,121. — open the source document
$93,121.60 annual minimum. Official continuous Police Officer Lateral/Academy Graduate recruitment publishes $93,121.60-$118,851.20 and accepts academy graduates/current academy enrollees independently of lateral experience.
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.
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How this level compares
Where Davis 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. Davis starts at $93,122, so $24,982 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Davis Police Department officer make?
Davis Police Department starts a new officer on $93,122 a year, about $44.77 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 $93,121.60 annual minimum. Official continuous Police Officer Lateral/Academy Graduate recruitment publishes $93,121..
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #163 of 278 agencies we have verified in California — 115 pay less, 162 pay more in the state — and #208 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $26,437 above, and against other municipal agencies $24,982 above.
What shifts do Davis Police Department officers work?
The Davis Police Dispatch Division is comprised of 12 full-time employees. Dispatchers work 12-hour shifts. The Dispatch Center is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, with a minimum staffing of 2 on each shift. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Davis 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 CA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Davis | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$70,498 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$56,321 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$54,821 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$50,882 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$49,974 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$47,902 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$46,618 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$45,843 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$45,139 | #9 |
| 10 | Los Gatos Police Department | Municipal | 34 | $132,394 | +$39,272 | #10 |
| 11 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$39,141 | #11 |
| 12 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$38,914 | #12 |
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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