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Garden City 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.
Garden City Police Department starts at $56,451 a year — about $27.14 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,234 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $11,689 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Kansas run about 10% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $62,676 would somewhere at average prices — $6,225 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 71 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isGarden City Police Department reported 61 sworn officers and 25 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 27,988.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 Garden City says about itself
The mission of the Garden City Police Department is to be valiant in providing professional police service with compassion and integrity. The Garden City Police Department will strive to exemplify leadership through innovation, professionalism, and technology while embracing a continued partnership with our community. Duty: if not us, then who? As members of the Police Department, we have a responsibility to provide a safe community for all. Honour: it is the deed, not the glory. As members of the Police Department, we have the honour of serving our community to ensure that we uphold and conserve the law. The Patrol Division is staffed on a twenty-four hour basis through the utilisation of the four patrol teams working on two different shift schedules.
What Garden City does
The city describes GCPD as a highly professional and progressive agency. Police Officers protect life and property, prevent crime, apprehend criminals, enforce laws and ordinances, patrol, investigate and regulate traffic.
Shifts at Garden City
The Patrol Division Personnel work 12-hour shifts. Shifts begin at 7 am and 7 pm. This allows the availability of two supervisors and six officers on the streets at any given time. The Patrol Division is staffed on a twenty-four hour basis through the utilization of the four patrol teams working on two different shift schedules.
The agency publishes the shift length but not a named cycle. These are the 12-hour rotations departments most often build on it: Pitman, 4 on, 4 off, DuPont, Panama, 3-4-4-3.
Four teams on two different schedules means the pattern you work depends on which team you are on, and the 7-to-7 changeover puts half your shifts on the far side of midnight. BlueShifts holds your own team's cycle rather than a generic 12-hour grid, so nights that start one day and end the next land on the right date.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. City of Garden City Police Officer job bulletin — open the source document
Their source is effective 2 January 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.
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How this level compares
Where Garden City 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. Garden City starts at $56,451, so $11,689 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Garden City Police Department officer make?
Garden City Police Department starts a new officer on $56,451 a year, about $27.14 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 Garden City Police Officer job bulletin.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Kansas?
It ranks #15 of 22 agencies we have verified in Kansas — 7 pay less, 14 pay more in the state — and #1,777 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,234 below, and against other municipal agencies $11,689 below.
What shifts do Garden City Police Department officers work?
The Patrol Division Personnel work 12-hour shifts. Shifts begin at 7 am and 7 pm. This allows the availability of two supervisors and six officers on the streets at any given time. The Patrol Division is staffed on a twenty-four hour basis through the utilization of the four patrol teams working on two different shift schedules. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Garden City 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 KS
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Garden | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wichita Police Department | Municipal | 663 | $70,970 | +$14,518 | #879 |
| 2 | Kansas Highway Patrol | State | 467 | $68,182 | +$11,731 | #1,041 |
| 3 | Lenexa Police Department | Municipal | 93 | $66,013 | +$9,562 | #1,184 |
| 4 | Prairie Village Police Department | Municipal | 46 | $65,975 | +$9,524 | #1,186 |
| 5 | Topeka Police Department | Municipal | 273 | $65,374 | +$8,923 | #1,232 |
| 6 | Olathe Police Department | Municipal | 210 | $65,050 | +$8,599 | #1,253 |
| 7 | Shawnee Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $64,114 | +$7,663 | #1,311 |
| 8 | Leawood Police Department | Municipal | 61 | $63,036 | +$6,585 | #1,382 |
| 9 | Lawrence Police Department | Municipal | — | $62,462 | +$6,011 | #1,414 |
| 10 | Johnson County Sheriff's Office | County | 488 | $62,400 | +$5,949 | #1,423 |
| 11 | University of Kansas Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 28 | $60,180 | +$3,729 | #1,553 |
| 12 | Shawnee County Sheriff's Office | County | 117 | $60,029 | +$3,578 | #1,563 |
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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