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Georgetown 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.
Georgetown Police Department starts at $74,000 a year — about $35.58 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $7,315 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $5,860 above the median for municipal agencies.
How big the department isGeorgetown Police Department reported 21 sworn officers and 6 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 8,342.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.
About Georgetown
The Georgetown Police Department polices the town of Georgetown, the seat of Sussex County in southern Delaware, from 335 North Race Street. It is led by Chief Ralph W. Holm Jr. and runs a patrol division, criminal investigations, a school resource officer, a mental health clinician and code enforcement. Patrol officers work twelve-hour shifts with every other weekend off and are assigned a take-home car. Officers retire after twenty years on the State Municipal Police Pension, and the department offers educational reimbursement with Delaware Technical Community College and Wilmington University campuses in the town. A new police department facility has been approved and was projected to be operational by December 2026.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 20 September 2026. Join Delaware — Georgetown Police Department, the State of Delaware's official police recruitment site: "Salary $74,000 upon completing the Academy" — open the source document
$74,000 is the published figure and no arithmetic has been applied to it. Class: Police Officer on completing the academy - the post-academy officer rate, the same reading already applied to South Burlington, Rutland City and Brandon. Trainee class: NOT PRICED - the department names no separate cadet, recruit or academy-attendance rate, and no lateral rate either, so this single figure is what a candidate with no prior service is paid on finishing the academy. Excluded from the figure: the take-home car, the State Municipal Police Pension twenty-year retirement, educational reimbursement and the $100,000 life insurance benefit provided at no cost. THE FIGURE CARRIES NO EFFECTIVE DATE, which is the weakness here - contrast New Castle City on the same site, where the entry self-dates to 1 July 2026, and note that the same site gave round, undated figures for Milford and Dover that turned out to be $6,297 and $2,000 low. NEXT DOCUMENT: a Town of Georgetown pay plan or police agreement carrying the dated schedule. NAME TRAP: there is also a Georgetown Police Department in Kentucky, already on the roster at a different figure, and another in Texas.
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 Georgetown 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. Georgetown starts at $74,000, so $5,860 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Georgetown Police Department officer make?
Georgetown Police Department starts a new officer on $74,000 a year, about $35.58 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 Join Delaware — Georgetown Police Department, the State of Delaware's official police recruitment site: "Salary $74,000 upon completing the Academy".
Is that good pay for a police officer in Delaware?
It ranks #6 of 18 agencies we have verified in Delaware — 12 pay less, 5 pay more in the state — and #719 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $7,315 above, and against other municipal agencies $5,860 above.
Compare with another department
Put Georgetown 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 DE
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Georgetown | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delaware State Police | State | 783 | $91,265 | +$17,265 | #238 |
| 2 | New Castle City Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,338 | +$1,338 | #660 |
| 3 | University of Delaware Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 48 | $74,679 | +$679 | #690 |
| 4 | Middletown Police Department | Municipal | 38 | $74,550 | +$550 | #696 |
| 5 | New Castle County Police | County | 414 | $74,453 | +$453 | #702 |
| 7 | Millsboro Police Department | Municipal | 17 | $73,560 | −$440 | #733 |
| 8 | Dover Police Department | Municipal | 101 | $72,000 | −$2,000 | #814 |
| 9 | Ocean View Police Department | Municipal | 14 | $72,000 | −$2,000 | #816 |
| 10 | Newark Police Department | Municipal | 72 | $70,000 | −$4,000 | #936 |
| 11 | Selbyville Police Department | Municipal | 10 | $68,788 | −$5,212 | #1,005 |
| 12 | Seaford Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $68,474 | −$5,526 | #1,021 |
| 13 | Milford Police Department | Municipal | 35 | $67,971 | −$6,029 | #1,059 |
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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