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Fort Worth 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.
Fort Worth Police Department starts at $78,358 a year — about $37.67 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $9,968 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $7,094 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Texas run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $80,734 would somewhere at average prices — $2,376 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 88, where goods are 98. 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 isFort Worth Police Department reported 1,768 sworn officers and 367 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 1,030,410.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 Fort Worth says about itself
The Fort Worth Police Department provides quality service in partnership with the community to create a safe environment for all.
What Fort Worth does
Fort Worth Police Department recruits complete a 34-week academy at the department's training facility, paid $5,460 a month as Police Trainees from the first day, and are commissioned onto the officer step scale on graduation. Most officers work a four-day week of four 10-hour shifts, and the department fields more than 60 specialty units including SWAT, K-9, Air Support and Mounted Patrol.
Fort Worth’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Most Fort Worth officers work a four-day week of four 10-hour shifts, and the department fields more than 60 specialty units including SWAT.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
WorkingOff
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.
Fort Worth publishes the days on and off but not which are days and which are nights. In BlueShifts you choose that yourself — every shift can be a day, a night or a 24-hour tour, and the calendar marks it with a sun, a moon or a clock.
A four-day week of 10-hour shifts moves your days off around the calendar rather than fixing them to a weekend. BlueShifts draws the pattern months ahead and shows at a glance which weekends you actually have.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 18 August 2026. Fort Worth Police Officers Association Meet and Confer pay plan, FY2026 Police Pay Plan, effective first pay period after 1 January 2026 — open the source document
The FY2025-2028 police pay table adopted under the four-year Meet and Confer Agreement signed in September 2024 sets Police Officer (key X03) Step 1 at $37.67 an hour and $78,358 a year in the FY2026 plan, effective the first pay period after 1 January 2026. The contract raises are printed in the table's notes and the arithmetic closes exactly: FY2025 Step 1 was $76,076, and the FY2026 increase of 3% for Steps 1-8 gives 76,076 x 1.03 = $78,358 to the dollar; Steps 9-10 rose 4% and also land exactly. Trainees are a separate classification, Police Trainee (job code 1000), paid $31.50 an hour or $65,520 during the 34-week academy per the City's FY2026 Salary Schedule - commissioning is a classification change onto the X03 scale, so the entry figure is Officer Step 1. FWPD'S OWN CAREERS PAGE IS STALE: its '$6,339 per month' on commissioning is the FY2025 rate ($76,076 a year) and its '$78,000' is a rounded forward claim. The officer scale then steps to $82,262 at 1 year, $86,385 at 2, $90,694 at 3, reaching $109,857 at 14. Excluded as add-ons: longevity pay of $4 a month per year of service to 25 years; education incentive of $60 a month for an associate degree, $180 for a bachelor's, $240 for a master's after one year; TCOLE certification pay of $30 a month intermediate and $60 advanced; bilingual pay to $125 a month; a 6% shift differential for hours between 6pm and 6am; the $325 annual uniform allowance; and court appearance pay.
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.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
Entry pay through 2028
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 Fort Worth 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. Fort Worth starts at $78,358, so $7,071 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Fort Worth Police Department officer make?
Fort Worth Police Department starts a new officer on $78,358 a year, about $37.67 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 Fort Worth Police Officers Association Meet and Confer pay plan, FY2026 Police Pay Plan, effective first pay period after 1 January 2026.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Texas?
It ranks #42 of 140 agencies we have verified in Texas — 98 pay less, 41 pay more in the state — and #448 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $9,968 above, and against other municipal agencies $7,094 above.
What shifts do Fort Worth Police Department officers work?
Most Fort Worth officers work a four-day week of four 10-hour shifts, and the department fields more than 60 specialty units including SWAT. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Fort Worth 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 TX
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Fort | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allen Police Department | Municipal | 153 | $91,106 | +$12,748 | #192 |
| 2 | Frisco Police Department | Municipal | 270 | $90,750 | +$12,392 | #200 |
| 3 | Plano Police Department | Municipal | 414 | $90,729 | +$12,371 | #201 |
| 4 | Grand Prairie Police Department | Municipal | 287 | $90,000 | +$11,642 | #216 |
| 5 | Hurst Police Department | Municipal | — | $87,048 | +$8,690 | #264 |
| 6 | Lewisville Police Department | Municipal | 181 | $86,268 | +$7,910 | #276 |
| 7 | Coppell Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $84,968 | +$6,610 | #293 |
| 8 | Rockwall Police Department | Municipal | 95 | $84,448 | +$6,090 | #300 |
| 9 | The Colony Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,082 | +$5,724 | #306 |
| 10 | Baytown Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,049 | +$5,691 | #307 |
| 11 | McKinney Police Department | Municipal | 248 | $83,992 | +$5,634 | #309 |
| 12 | Mesquite Police Department | Municipal | 260 | $83,869 | +$5,511 | #312 |
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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