Dayton Police Department entry pay

What Dayton says about itself

The Staff of the Dayton Police department is committed to giving the highest level of service for every call and every crime reported.

What Dayton does

The Dayton Police Department serves a city of over 12,000 across about 25 square miles in Hennepin and Wright Counties, one of the fastest-growing municipalities in Minnesota with several hundred new homes built a year. It runs sixteen sworn officers - a Chief, a Lieutenant, two Sergeants, ten Patrol Officers and two Detectives - organised as a Patrol Unit, a traffic car and a Community Response Unit. New hires complete a three-week Dayton academy of their own, built around scenario-based patrol training, and lateral officers take a shortened version of it. Patrol works twelve-hour shifts on a fortnightly rotation and bids shifts by seniority each autumn for the following calendar year. The Department runs an officer wellness programme with access to a therapist, an on-duty workout programme in its own gym and a departmental therapy dog, and offers assignments including field training, firearms, use-of-force and Taser instruction, drug recognition, crisis negotiation and the Community Response Unit. The Department publishes its own news and press reports and uses its website and social media to answer public concerns directly, while stating plainly that it does not respond to comments or messages on social media, and it employs a Community Assistance Specialist dedicated to non-criminal needs - behavioural health crises, domestic disputes, and help finding food, housing or counselling.

Dayton’s rotation, in BlueShifts

Where the figure comes from

Checked 1 September 2026. City of Dayton and Law Enforcement Labor Services Local No. 585 labor agreement, Article 31 Salary Schedule, Grade PO Step 1, 2026: "$42.50"; Article 12.1: "The normal work year for full-time employees is two thousand and eighty (2,080) hours" — open the source document
Class: Police Officer, Grade PO Step 1. The City of Dayton / LELS Local No. 585 labor agreement, in force 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2026, sets the Step 1 rate at $40.87 an hour for 2025 and $42.50 for 2026 - a 4 per cent salary adjustment plus a 4 per cent market adjustment, both effective 1 January 2026 - and Article 12.1 states the normal work year for full-time employees is two thousand and eighty (2,080) hours. $42.50 x 2,080 = $88,400. THE MULTIPLIER IS THE POINT ON THIS ROW: patrol works 12-hour shifts on a 5-5-2-2 cycle, which is seven worked days a fortnight and would give 2,190 hours, and the row was held for a pass rather than published on the wrong year length. The contract settles it - 2,080 is the employer's own accounting year, with holidays, assigned training and paid leave counted into it. Trainee class: NO. Prior sworn service is NOT required - progression is annual on the anniversary date and officers hired WITH prior POST experience are credited only for LONGEVITY pay, to a maximum of eight years, which is what proves Step 1 is the non-lateral entry step. The Department's own recruitment page states the same 2026 range from the other end, $42.50 to $60.65 an hour including longevity of up to 13 per cent after sixteen years. Also in the agreement: 3 per cent shift differential for all hours worked between 6pm and 6am, 6 per cent investigator pay, 4 per cent bilingual pay, an extra hour of overtime per field-training shift, thirteen paid holidays banked as 104 hours, and a $1,050 uniform allowance for 2026. SUCCESSOR WATCH: the agreement runs out on 31 December 2026.
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 Dayton sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.

How it ranks

Common questions

How much does a Dayton Police Department officer make?

Dayton Police Department starts a new officer on $88,400 a year, about $42.50 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 Dayton and Law Enforcement Labor Services Local No. 585 labor agreement, Article 31 Salary Schedule, Grade PO Step 1, 2026: "$42.50"; Article 12.1: "The normal work year for full-time employees is two thousand and eighty (2,080) hours".

Is that good pay for a police officer in Minnesota?

It ranks #25 of 102 agencies we have verified in Minnesota — 77 pay less, 24 pay more in the state — and #297 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $21,715 above, and against other municipal agencies $20,260 above.

What shifts do Dayton Police Department officers work?

The Department's own recruitment FAQ states that Patrol Officers work 12-hour shifts on a two-week rotating schedule, and that a typical rotation is five days on, five days off, then two days on and two days off. Shift assignments are bid by seniority at the end of each year and typically stay fixed for the following calendar year. The labor agreement adds the tour boundary: all hours worked between 6pm and 6am carry a 3 per cent shift differential. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.

The agencies either side of it