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Fairfield 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.
Fairfield Police Department starts at $75,241 a year — about $36.17 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $7,974 above the median of the 2,053 agencies on this list, and $6,455 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Connecticut run about 4% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $72,619 somewhere at average prices — $2,622 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 146 against a national average of 100, 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 isFairfield Police Department reported 115 sworn officers and 35 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 66,290.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.
About Fairfield
The Fairfield Police Department polices the town of Fairfield in Fairfield County, on Connecticut's south-western shore between Bridgeport and Westport. Law enforcement in the town goes back to the appointment of a Town Marshall in 1661; the office became an elected constable, and the shooting of Constable Hezekiah Elwood in 1926 prompted the ordinance that created the police department, passed in 1930 under its first chief, Arthur J. Bennett, with seven officers. The department moved to its present headquarters at 100 Reef Road in 1976. It now employs 112 sworn officers, 70 authorized special traffic agents, 25 telecommunicators and 4 animal control officers, and runs a fleet of 61 vehicles including patrol cars, four motorcycles, two boats, a wave runner, a command post and unmarked and administrative vehicles. Patrol has run three eight-hour shifts a day since 1942. Regular assignments named in the union contract include the R and B patrol routes, beach patrol, boat patrol, motorcycle patrol, the traffic division and the detective division; officers also work a scuba diving group and a youth division. The department is accredited-standard in its recruitment, testing through the Connecticut Police Chiefs Association consortium.
Fairfield’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Article XXIX of the Town's contract with the Fairfield Police Union sets patrol on four consecutive days of work followed by two consecutive days off, with the two days off regressing one day per week. Patrol runs four shifts - a day shift of 8-4 or 7-3, an evening shift of 4-12 or 3-11, a midnight shift of 12-8 or 11-7, and a relief shift that works two days, then two evenings, then two days off. Shifts are picked by seniority every three months, commencing 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, and the four most junior officers rotate across the four shifts for up to a year after certification.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
Days off that regress a day each week never land on the same weekday twice running, so a paper roster stops helping by about week three. BlueShifts builds the six-day cycle once and fills every month ahead of it, and when the quarterly shift bid moves you from days to midnights you change the tour rather than redraw the year.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 September 2026. Contract between the Town of Fairfield and the Fairfield Police Union, Connecticut Organization for Public Safety, C.O.P.S. Local #550, July 1 2022 to June 30 2025 — Police Appendix C, wage scale for 7/01/2024-6/30/2025 — open the source document
Read 8 September 2026 from the Town's own collective bargaining agreement, published on the Town of Fairfield Human Resources Department's Union Contracts page under the heading 'Police Contract 2022-2025' (the filename on the link is stale; the document inside runs July 1 2022 to June 30 2025). POLICE - APPENDIX C, the wage scale effective 7/01/2024, sets Grade 'Offcrs' Step 1 at 75,241, and Article XVII raises wage rates by 2.75 per cent on 1 July of each of the three contract years. The department's current entry-level announcement advertises the same $75,241 to $91,941, so the scale is the live figure. The top of that range is Step 8 with the twenty-year longevity step added and is excluded, as are Detective, Sergeant and Lieutenant grades. Entry-level applicants need only United States citizenship, age 21, a high school diploma or GED and a valid motor vehicle operator's license; recruit training is at the Connecticut Police Academy in Meriden or an authorized POSTC satellite academy, so no prior certification is required and the department runs a separate certified announcement for laterals. Longevity steps of $1,000 at ten years, $1,200 at fifteen and $1,400 at twenty are added to base pay and are excluded. Officers are paid weekly. Residency: within Connecticut and thirty miles of the police department under Article XXXIX.
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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Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
Entry pay, 2022–2024
Every point is the entry-class annual base printed in the agency’s own pay document. Base pay only — no shift differential, incentives or allowances.
How this level compares
Where Fairfield 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 | $68,786 | $163,619 | 1372 |
| County | $35,000 | $64,438 | $132,263 | 459 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,400 | $110,916 | 144 |
| 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 $4,700 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,100 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Fairfield starts at $75,241, so $6,455 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Fairfield Police Department officer make?
Fairfield Police Department starts a new officer on $75,241 a year, about $36.17 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 Contract between the Town of Fairfield and the Fairfield Police Union, Connecticut Organization for Public Safety, C.O.P.S. Local #550, July 1 2022 to June 30 2025 — Police Appendix C, wage scale for 7/01/2024-6/30/2025.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Connecticut?
It ranks #7 of 19 agencies we have verified in Connecticut — 12 pay less, 6 pay more in the state — and #611 of 2,053 nationally. Against the national median it is $7,974 above, and against other municipal agencies $6,455 above.
What shifts do Fairfield Police Department officers work?
Article XXIX of the Town's contract with the Fairfield Police Union sets patrol on four consecutive days of work followed by two consecutive days off, with the two days off regressing one day per week. Patrol runs four shifts - a day shift of 8-4 or 7-3, an evening shift of 4-12 or 3-11, a midnight shift of 12-8 or 11-7, and a relief shift that works two days, then two evenings, then two days off. Shifts are picked by seniority every three months, commencing 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, and the four most junior officers rotate across the four shifts for up to a year after certification. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Fairfield 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 CT
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Fairfield | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Windsor Police Department | Municipal | 41 | $87,483 | +$12,242 | #280 |
| 2 | Norwalk Police Department | Municipal | 184 | $82,116 | +$6,875 | #382 |
| 3 | Milford Police Department | Municipal | 105 | $81,237 | +$5,996 | #408 |
| 4 | Greenwich Police Department | Municipal | 142 | $78,704 | +$3,463 | #481 |
| 5 | Connecticut State Police | State | 955 | $76,625 | +$1,384 | #548 |
| 6 | Suffield Police Department | Municipal | 21 | $75,420 | +$179 | #600 |
| 8 | Stamford Police Department | Municipal | 278 | $72,881 | −$2,360 | #706 |
| 9 | Manchester Police Department | Municipal | 117 | $72,633 | −$2,608 | #720 |
| 10 | Norwich Police Department | Municipal | 76 | $71,944 | −$3,297 | #750 |
| 11 | Wallingford Police Department | Municipal | 73 | $71,448 | −$3,793 | #778 |
| 12 | Bridgeport Police Department | Municipal | 321 | $71,192 | −$4,049 | #796 |
| 13 | Danbury Police Department | Municipal | 156 | $68,499 | −$6,742 | #939 |
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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