BlueShifts shield logo BlueShiftsPolice Calendar app

Home › Police pay › California › Glendale Police Department

Glendale 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.

Glendale Police Department starts at $99,756 a year — about $47.96 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $33,071 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $31,616 above the median for municipal agencies.

Cost of livingPrices in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA run about 14% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $87,839 somewhere at average prices — $11,916 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 170 against a national average of 100, where goods are 107. Based on price levels for this metropolitan 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 isGlendale Police Department reported 256 sworn officers and 100 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.4 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 185,849.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 Glendale says about itself

It is our mission to protect Glendale, preserve trust, and maximize our potential. It is the vision of the Glendale Police Department to be a world-class organization, focused on providing the highest quality of professional policing services to our community, while striving to be at the forefront of law enforcement.

What Glendale does

GPD is a full-service agency with patrol and specialized assignments and community partnership.

Where the figure comes from

Checked 13 August 2026. $8,312.97/month / $99,755.64 annual Police Officer minimum. Current City Police Officer class specification publishes $8,312. — open the source document
$8,312.97/month / $99,755.64 annual Police Officer minimum. Current City Police Officer class specification publishes $8,312.97-$11,463.18 monthly.
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 Glendale sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.

LevelLowestMedianHighestAgencies
Municipal$33,280$68,140$163,6191549
County$35,000$63,565$132,263516
Special jurisdiction$31,200$60,204$107,95471
State$33,994$65,166$110,916145
Federal$70,477$73,502$86,5305
Territory$16,640$28,236$43,3549
What this shows

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. Glendale starts at $99,756, so $31,616 above the municipal middle.

BlueShifts app icon

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.

How it ranks

Nationally #134of 2,288 agencies Top 6% of everything we have verified
In CA #119of 278 agencies 159 pay less, 118 pay more
Hourly to start $48on a 2,080-hour year Base pay only, before overtime or any differential

Common questions

How much does a Glendale Police Department officer make?

Glendale Police Department starts a new officer on $99,756 a year, about $47.96 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 $8,312.97/month / $99,755.64 annual Police Officer minimum. Current City Police Officer class specification publishes $8,312..

Is that good pay for a police officer in California?

It ranks #119 of 278 agencies we have verified in California — 159 pay less, 118 pay more in the state — and #134 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $33,071 above, and against other municipal agencies $31,616 above.

Compare with another department

Put Glendale 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.

Compare Glendale

The agencies either side of it

Other agencies in CA

Go
#AgencyLevelSworn #Entry payVs GlendaleNational
1Santa Clara Police DepartmentMunicipal141 / 153$163,619+$63,864#1
2Sunnyvale Department of Public SafetyMunicipal227 / 201$149,443+$49,687#2
3Redwood City Police DepartmentMunicipal83$147,942+$48,186#3
4San Jose Police DepartmentMunicipal1,065 / 1,167$144,003+$44,248#4
5Mountain View Police DepartmentMunicipal90 / 90$143,096+$43,340#5
6San Mateo Police DepartmentMunicipal111$141,024+$41,268#6
7Los Altos Police DepartmentMunicipal31 / 32$139,740+$39,984#7
8Hayward Police DepartmentMunicipal171$138,965+$39,209#8
9Milpitas Police DepartmentMunicipal84 / 92$138,261+$38,505#9
10Los Gatos Police DepartmentMunicipal34$132,394+$32,638#10
11Santa Clara County Sheriff's OfficeCounty1,071$132,263+$32,507#11
12Menlo Park Police DepartmentMunicipal43$132,036+$32,280#12

Know someone who should see this?

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.

Scan to install

QR code that opens BlueShifts on the App Store
iPhone
QR code that opens BlueShifts on Google Play
Android