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Gainesville 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.
Gainesville Police Department starts at $60,600 a year — about $29.13 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $6,085 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $7,540 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Florida run about 3% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $58,599 somewhere at average prices — $2,001 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 122 against a national average of 100, 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 isGainesville Police Department reported 242 sworn officers and 101 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 150,376.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 Gainesville says about itself
GPD's New Mission: Serve the people. Protect life, property, and rights. Enforce the law fair and impartially. Resolve problems.
What Gainesville does
The Gainesville Police Department is the municipal force for the City of Gainesville, the largest city in Alachua County and the commercial and educational center of north central Florida, home to the University of Florida. It is a full-service community-oriented policing agency of roughly 300 sworn officers and 70 support staff, organised into patrol support, operations and investigations bureaus with a traffic unit, and runs a police advisory council, a citizens academy, an explorer post and its own police foundation.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 30 August 2026. Gainesville Police Department, Recruitment Information - Police Officers, Certified Police Officer minimum starting salary; City of Gainesville / FOP labor agreement 2024-2027 Exhibit I for the dated start rate — open the source document
Their source is effective 28 August 2026.
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 Gainesville 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. Gainesville starts at $60,600, so $7,540 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Gainesville Police Department officer make?
Gainesville Police Department starts a new officer on $60,600 a year, about $29.13 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 Gainesville Police Department, Recruitment Information - Police Officers, Certified Police Officer minimum starting salary; City of Gainesville / FOP labor agreement 2024-2027 Exhibit I for the dated start rate.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Florida?
It ranks #154 of 303 agencies we have verified in Florida — 149 pay less, 153 pay more in the state — and #1,529 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $6,085 below, and against other municipal agencies $7,540 below.
Compare with another department
Put Gainesville 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 FL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Gainesville | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boca Raton Police Services Department | Municipal | 195 | $91,007 | +$30,407 | #244 |
| 2 | Fort Lauderdale Police Department | Municipal | 565 | $81,723 | +$21,123 | #433 |
| 3 | Plantation Police Department | Municipal | 164 | $81,000 | +$20,400 | #459 |
| 4 | Hillsboro Beach Police Department | Municipal | 15 | $80,954 | +$20,354 | #461 |
| 5 | Pinecrest Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $80,912 | +$20,312 | #464 |
| 6 | Sunny Isles Beach Police Department | Municipal | 65 | $80,000 | +$19,400 | #496 |
| 7 | Indian Creek Village Public Safety Department | Municipal | 10 | $79,850 | +$19,250 | #500 |
| 8 | Sunrise Police Department | Municipal | 190 | $79,071 | +$18,471 | #520 |
| 9 | Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,720 | $78,828 | +$18,228 | #526 |
| 10 | Aventura Police Department | Municipal | 91 | $78,556 | +$17,956 | #536 |
| 11 | Longboat Key Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $78,430 | +$17,830 | #543 |
| 12 | Manalapan Police Department | Municipal | 13 | $78,280 | +$17,680 | #549 |
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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