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Des Plaines 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.
Des Plaines Police Department starts at $91,440 a year — about $43.96 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $23,050 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $20,176 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN run about 4% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $88,267 somewhere at average prices — $3,173 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 84 against a national average of 100, where goods are 107. 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 isDes Plaines Police Department reported 97 sworn officers and 16 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 58,435.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 Des Plaines says about itself
The mission of the Des Plaines Police Department, through the utilization of a Community Based Policing philosophy, is to protect people and property, and enhance the quality of life for all of our citizens. We preserve the peace in a manner consistent with the freedoms secured by the Constitution of the United States utilizing a fiscally responsible approach.
What Des Plaines does
Des Plaines Police Department serves a Cook County city north-west of Chicago, near O'Hare, and states its mission as protecting people and property and enhancing quality of life through community based policing, preserving the peace consistent with the freedoms secured by the Constitution and on a fiscally responsible footing. It works in four functional divisions: administrative; operations, whose uniformed officers provide 24-hour patrol; criminal investigations, whose detectives focus heavily on gang and narcotics work; and support services, covering records, training, policy, school and community outreach, media relations and special events — and including two social workers under a human services function.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Des Plaines official Police — open the source document
2026 entry-level testing recruitment; official starting salary $91,440
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.
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How this level compares
Where Des Plaines 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 | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| 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 $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Des Plaines starts at $91,440, so $20,153 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Des Plaines Police Department officer make?
Des Plaines Police Department starts a new officer on $91,440 a year, about $43.96 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 Des Plaines official Police.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Illinois?
It ranks #4 of 35 agencies we have verified in Illinois — 31 pay less, 3 pay more in the state — and #186 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $23,050 above, and against other municipal agencies $20,176 above.
Compare with another department
Put Des Plaines 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 IL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Des | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vernon Hills Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $94,460 | +$3,020 | #151 |
| 2 | Wilmette Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $93,156 | +$1,716 | #165 |
| 3 | Aurora Police Department | Municipal | 328 | $92,248 | +$808 | #176 |
| 5 | Highland Park Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $91,158 | −$282 | #191 |
| 6 | Illinois State Police | State | 1,821 | $90,828 | −$612 | #199 |
| 7 | River Forest Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $90,106 | −$1,334 | #213 |
| 8 | Elgin Police Department | Municipal | 203 | $88,274 | −$3,166 | #245 |
| 9 | Lake County Sheriff's Office | County | 113 | $87,297 | −$4,143 | #259 |
| 10 | Woodridge Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $84,781 | −$6,659 | #294 |
| 11 | DeKalb Police Department | Municipal | 72 | $83,449 | −$7,991 | #326 |
| 12 | Rolling Meadows Police Department | Municipal | 49 | $81,439 | −$10,001 | #362 |
| 13 | Bloomington Police Department | Municipal | — | $81,304 | −$10,136 | #368 |
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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