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Duluth 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.
Duluth Police Department starts at $64,755 a year — about $31.13 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $1,930 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $3,385 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Georgia run about 4% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $67,248 would somewhere at average prices — $2,493 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 89 against a national average of 100, where goods are 99. 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 isDuluth Police Department reported 57 sworn officers and 26 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 33,465.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 Duluth says about itself
The Duluth Police Department is committed to serving the community through the delivery of professional law enforcement services in an unbiased and compassionate manner in order to protect the lives and property of the citizens and improve the quality of life in our community.
What Duluth does
The Duluth Police Department is the municipal force for the City of Duluth in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Its Uniform Patrol Division has 44 sworn officers, including two K-9 officers and the Special Operations Unit, and handles every call for service in the city on 12-hour shifts under a four-shift schedule.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 23 September 2026. Duluth Police Department recruiting site: "Police Officer starting salary is $64,755, based on 42-hour schedule." The City's own Join DPD! page sends applicants to www.joinduluthpd.com as "DPD's recruiting website". — open the source document
$64,755 is printed as an annual starting salary and the department states its basis itself: a 42-hour week. There is ONE police officer rate - certified and non-certified hires start on the same salary and differ only in sign-on bonus ($1,500 against $3,000, paid in halves after field training and after one year), and a bonus is not base pay. The recruiting site is the department's own, at 3276 Buford Hwy, Duluth, Georgia 30096, and the City links to it from duluthga.net. No effective date is printed. Excluded: sign-on bonuses, the $800 a month housing stipend, the 5% Master Police Officer raise available after one year, and the take-home car.
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 Duluth 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. Duluth starts at $64,755, so $3,385 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Duluth Police Department officer make?
Duluth Police Department starts a new officer on $64,755 a year, about $31.13 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 Duluth Police Department recruiting site: "Police Officer starting salary is $64,755, based on 42-hour schedule." The City's own Join DPD! page sends applicants to www.joinduluthpd.com as "DPD's recruiting website"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Georgia?
It ranks #4 of 80 agencies we have verified in Georgia — 76 pay less, 3 pay more in the state — and #1,279 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $1,930 below, and against other municipal agencies $3,385 below.
Compare with another department
Put Duluth 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 GA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Duluth | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chamblee Police Department | Municipal | 68 | $73,733 | +$8,978 | #729 |
| 2 | Sandy Springs Police Department | Municipal | 149 | $71,686 | +$6,931 | #836 |
| 3 | Georgia Bureau of Investigation | State | 338 | $64,977 | +$222 | #1,265 |
| 5 | Garden City Police Department | Municipal | 35 | $64,072 | −$683 | #1,314 |
| 6 | Georgia State Patrol | State | — | $63,684 | −$1,071 | #1,336 |
| 7 | South Fulton Police Department | Municipal | 213 | $63,440 | −$1,315 | #1,354 |
| 8 | Hall County Sheriff's Office | County | 283 | $63,365 | −$1,390 | #1,359 |
| 9 | Roswell Police Department | Municipal | 154 | $62,462 | −$2,293 | #1,413 |
| 10 | Dunwoody Police Department | Municipal | 66 | $62,301 | −$2,454 | #1,428 |
| 11 | Savannah Police Department | Municipal | 425 | $61,989 | −$2,766 | #1,450 |
| 12 | Alpharetta Police Department | Municipal | 105 | $61,100 | −$3,655 | #1,495 |
| 13 | DeKalb County Police Department | County | 525 | $61,000 | −$3,755 | #1,504 |
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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