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Fairhope 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.
Fairhope Police Department starts at $47,840 a year — about $23.00 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $20,550 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $23,424 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL run about 5% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $50,523 would somewhere at average prices — $2,683 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 83 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isFairhope Police Department reported 44 sworn officers and 25 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 26,953.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 Fairhope says about itself
The mission of the Fairhope Police Department is to provide excellent service through community partnerships that build trust, reduce crime, create a safe environment, and enhance the quality of life in our community.
What Fairhope does
Fairhope PD is the municipal police department for the City of Fairhope, based next to City Hall on North Section Street, where the building houses police administration, the investigations division, a dispatch center and a full-service jail.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Fairhope official 2026 Police Officer - — open the source document
Opened 12 January 2026; official Police Officer minimum $23.00/hour = $47,840 annually. The posting is full-time municipal patrol employment. Higher range placement and add-ons are excluded
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 Fairhope 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. Fairhope starts at $47,840, so $23,447 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Fairhope Police Department officer make?
Fairhope Police Department starts a new officer on $47,840 a year, about $23.00 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 Fairhope official 2026 Police Officer -.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Alabama?
It ranks #12 of 21 agencies we have verified in Alabama — 9 pay less, 11 pay more in the state — and #1,601 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $20,550 below, and against other municipal agencies $23,424 below.
Compare with another department
Put Fairhope 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 AL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Fairhope | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madison Police Department | Municipal | 88 | $60,195 | +$12,355 | #1,226 |
| 2 | Huntsville Police Department | Municipal | 432 | $58,614 | +$10,774 | #1,300 |
| 3 | Shelby County Sheriff's Office | County | 147 | $57,408 | +$9,568 | #1,362 |
| 4 | Alabama Highway Patrol | State | — | $56,726 | +$8,886 | #1,376 |
| 5 | Madison County Sheriff's Office | County | 184 | $55,390 | +$7,550 | #1,415 |
| 6 | Montgomery Police Department | Municipal | 259 | $55,168 | +$7,328 | #1,420 |
| 7 | Baldwin County Sheriff's Office | County | 174 | $53,768 | +$5,928 | #1,476 |
| 8 | Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office | County | 112 | $51,888 | +$4,048 | #1,521 |
| 9 | Prattville Police Department | Municipal | 96 | $50,679 | +$2,839 | #1,544 |
| 10 | Mobile County Sheriff's Office | County | 236 | $50,526 | +$2,686 | #1,551 |
| 11 | University of Alabama at Birmingham Police Department | Special jurisdiction | — | $49,920 | +$2,080 | #1,577 |
| 13 | Jefferson County Sheriff's Office | County | 466 | $47,736 | −$104 | #1,604 |
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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