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Hastings 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.
Hastings Police Department starts at $65,790 a year — about $31.63 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $894 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $2,350 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Nebraska run about 10% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $73,017 would somewhere at average prices — $7,226 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 75 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 isHastings Police Department reported 35 sworn officers and 16 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.4 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 25,158.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 Hastings says about itself
Hastings Police Department offers a number of services, as well as providing a variety of reports.
What Hastings does
The Hastings Police Department is the municipal force for the City of Hastings, the seat of Adams County, Nebraska. It runs an administrative services division with the 911 center and records, and an operations division with patrol, community service officers and a detective bureau.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 26 September 2026. City of Hastings, "CITY OF HASTINGS FOP SALARY SCHEDULE", Fiscal Year 2026-27, Effective 9-20-26: POLICE OFFICER Step 1 "$31.63" hourly, "$65,790.40" annual. — open the source document
Step 1 of the City's FOP salary schedule for fiscal 2026-27, effective 20 September 2026; the City prints the annual, used as printed ($31.63 x 2,080). The schedule has no recruit row below Step 1, and the City's police employment page says certified officers begin "in the appropriate step, according to their years of service, training, and experience" - so Step 1 is where a new officer without prior service starts. Excluded: the uniform allowance after the first year and overtime.
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 Hastings 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. Hastings starts at $65,790, so $2,350 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Hastings Police Department officer make?
Hastings Police Department starts a new officer on $65,790 a year, about $31.63 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 Hastings, "CITY OF HASTINGS FOP SALARY SCHEDULE", Fiscal Year 2026-27, Effective 9-20-26: POLICE OFFICER Step 1 "$31.63" hourly, "$65,790.40" annual..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Nebraska?
It ranks #12 of 20 agencies we have verified in Nebraska — 8 pay less, 11 pay more in the state — and #1,202 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $894 below, and against other municipal agencies $2,350 below.
Compare with another department
Put Hastings 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 NE
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Hastings | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Omaha Police Department | Municipal | 788 | $79,580 | +$13,790 | #505 |
| 2 | Lincoln Police Department | Municipal | 351 | $74,568 | +$8,778 | #694 |
| 3 | Sarpy County Sheriff's Office | County | 114 | $73,861 | +$8,070 | #724 |
| 4 | La Vista Police Department | Municipal | 42 | $73,653 | +$7,862 | #730 |
| 5 | Lancaster County Sheriff's Office | County | 86 | $72,280 | +$6,490 | #796 |
| 6 | Nebraska State Patrol | State | 410 | $70,195 | +$4,405 | #928 |
| 7 | University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 30 | $70,042 | +$4,252 | #935 |
| 8 | Papillion Police Department | Municipal | 48 | $69,086 | +$3,295 | #985 |
| 9 | Douglas County Sheriff's Office | County | 155 | $68,744 | +$2,954 | #1,008 |
| 10 | Grand Island Police Department | Municipal | 89 | $67,621 | +$1,830 | #1,086 |
| 11 | Dodge County Sheriff's Office | County | 21 | $66,200 | +$410 | #1,176 |
| 13 | Columbus Police Department | Municipal | 37 | $65,340 | −$450 | #1,235 |
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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