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Great Falls 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.
Great Falls Police Department starts at $76,253 a year — about $36.66 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $9,568 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $8,113 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Great Falls, MT run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $78,737 would somewhere at average prices — $2,484 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 73 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isGreat Falls Police Department reported 90 sworn officers and 35 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 59,904.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 Great Falls says about itself
The Great Falls Police Department is committed to providing the highest quality of police service to the citizens of Great Falls, in partnership with the entire community, and lives by and is guided by its mission statement of community, compassion and courage. When fully staffed the department consists of 91 sworn officer positions supported by 44 civilian positions, serving a community of approximately 60,000 residents and responding to over 45,000 calls for service each year, with career opportunities within three sworn bureaus: Patrol, Investigative, and Support Services. Our patrol officers are sworn to enforce all federal, state and local laws and ordinances, and are responsible for patrolling assigned areas, investigating motor vehicle collisions, enforcing traffic laws and criminal statutes, and maintaining peace and order as well as protecting lives and property of all persons within our community.
What Great Falls does
Great Falls Police Department summarizes its mission through three themes: community, compassion and courage. Official City materials say the department works with the community through neighborhood watch, volunteerism, community policing, citizen academies and outreach, while emphasizing compassion for those it serves and the courage to do what is necessary and right
Great Falls’s rotation, in BlueShifts
We staff two traditional patrol teams, each consisting of one lieutenant, 5 sergeants, and 21 officers when fully staffed. These teams work 10 hour and 40 minute shifts with 5 days on and 4 days off.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
The agency publishes the shift length but not a named cycle. These are the 10-hour rotations departments most often build on it: 4/10.
Five on, four off, on shifts of ten hours and forty minutes - an odd length chosen so the nine-day cycle lands on contract hours. It drifts through the week, so no two months look alike.
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.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Great Falls official Entry — open the source document
Opened 15 June 2026; official entry-level minimum $36.66/hour = $76,252.80
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 Great Falls 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. Great Falls starts at $76,253, so $8,113 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Great Falls Police Department officer make?
Great Falls Police Department starts a new officer on $76,253 a year, about $36.66 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 Great Falls official Entry.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Montana?
It ranks #6 of 25 agencies we have verified in Montana — 19 pay less, 5 pay more in the state — and #613 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $9,568 above, and against other municipal agencies $8,113 above.
What shifts do Great Falls Police Department officers work?
We staff two traditional patrol teams, each consisting of one lieutenant, 5 sergeants, and 21 officers when fully staffed. These teams work 10 hour and 40 minute shifts with 5 days on and 4 days off. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Great Falls 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 MT
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Great | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Missoula Police Department | Municipal | 117 | $95,326 | +$19,074 | #180 |
| 2 | Bozeman Police Department | Municipal | 73 | $79,581 | +$3,328 | #504 |
| 3 | Gallatin County Sheriff's Office | County | 72 | $79,456 | +$3,203 | #511 |
| 4 | Kalispell Police Department | Municipal | 52 | $79,334 | +$3,081 | #514 |
| 5 | Missoula County Sheriff's Office | County | 59 | $77,563 | +$1,310 | #570 |
| 7 | Cascade County Sheriff's Office | County | 43 | $73,778 | −$2,475 | #727 |
| 8 | Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office | County | 65 | $72,800 | −$3,453 | #774 |
| 9 | Belgrade Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $71,761 | −$4,492 | #831 |
| 10 | Montana Highway Patrol | State | 225 | $71,240 | −$5,013 | #862 |
| 11 | Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office | County | 54 | $69,285 | −$6,968 | #973 |
| 12 | Billings Police Department | Municipal | 164 | $69,056 | −$7,197 | #988 |
| 13 | Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Department | Municipal | — | $67,648 | −$8,605 | #1,082 |
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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