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Garden Grove 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 Grove Police Department starts at $91,860 a year — about $44.16 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $25,175 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $23,720 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $82,966 somewhere at average prices — $8,894 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 159 against a national average of 100, where goods are 106. 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 Grove Police Department reported 172 sworn officers and 60 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.0 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 172,490.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 Grove says about itself
The mission of the Garden Grove Police Department, through a Community Partnership, is to improve the quality of life in the city and provide a sense of safety and security to the community members.
What Garden Grove does
The Garden Grove Police Department describes a longstanding community-policing philosophy based on close partnerships with residents, businesses, schools, governmental agencies and community groups. The department says officers work creatively with the community while providing patrol, investigations, juvenile services, traffic enforcement, vice/narcotics enforcement, gang suppression, community-impact and canine services
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Garden Grove official Police Officer — open the source document
2026 academy-trained recruitment; official salary begins $7,655/month = $91,860 annually. Applicants must have graduated from a California POST-approved Basic Academy within the last three years or possess a valid POST certificate. No prior sworn law-enforcement employment is required for the academy-trained route
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 Grove 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 Grove starts at $91,860, so $23,720 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Garden Grove Police Department officer make?
Garden Grove Police Department starts a new officer on $91,860 a year, about $44.16 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 Grove official Police Officer.
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #173 of 278 agencies we have verified in California — 105 pay less, 172 pay more in the state — and #231 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $25,175 above, and against other municipal agencies $23,720 above.
Compare with another department
Put Garden Grove 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 CA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Garden | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$71,759 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$57,583 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$56,082 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$52,143 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$51,236 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$49,164 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$47,880 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$47,105 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$46,401 | #9 |
| 10 | Los Gatos Police Department | Municipal | 34 | $132,394 | +$40,534 | #10 |
| 11 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$40,403 | #11 |
| 12 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$40,176 | #12 |
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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