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Hawthorne 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.
Hawthorne Police Department starts at $91,079 a year — about $43.79 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $23,812 above the median of the 2,053 agencies on this list, and $22,293 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $82,261 somewhere at average prices — $8,818 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 isHawthorne Police Department reported 89 sworn officers and 53 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.1 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 82,626.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 Hawthorne says about itself
The mission of the Hawthorne Police Department is to provide a safe and secure community for its citizens while at the same time promoting a high degree of professionalism and respect for human dignity.
What Hawthorne does
The Hawthorne Police Department serves the City of Hawthorne in the South Bay of Los Angeles County, California.
Hawthorne’s rotation, in BlueShifts
The Patrol Division works a "3/12.5 work schedule for the term of this Memorandum of Understanding unless the Chief of Police determines the need to allocate resources to a 4/10 work schedule", on "one hundred and sixty (160) hours per twenty-eight (28) workday period."
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
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
Three twelve-and-a-half-hour days and four off fits inside a week, and the 160-hour period means one extra shift every four weeks that lands wherever it lands. BlueShifts builds the week once and fills in every month ahead, so the extra shift is the only thing left to place.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 20 September 2026. City of Hawthorne and Hawthorne Police Officers' Association MOU, July 2024 - June 2027, Section 5.1, Police Officer Step A — open the source document
Effective 1 July 2026; $7,590 a month, $43.788/hr at Step A. Section 5.2 starts new hires at Step A.
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.
Entry pay, 2024–2026
Every point is the entry-class annual base printed in the agency’s own pay document. Base pay only — no shift differential, incentives or allowances.
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 this level compares
Where Hawthorne 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 | $68,786 | $163,619 | 1372 |
| County | $35,000 | $64,438 | $132,263 | 459 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,400 | $110,916 | 144 |
| 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 $4,700 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,100 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Hawthorne starts at $91,079, so $22,293 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Hawthorne Police Department officer make?
Hawthorne Police Department starts a new officer on $91,079 a year, about $43.79 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 Hawthorne and Hawthorne Police Officers' Association MOU, July 2024 - June 2027, Section 5.1, Police Officer Step A.
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #150 of 239 agencies we have verified in California — 89 pay less, 149 pay more in the state — and #210 of 2,053 nationally. Against the national median it is $23,812 above, and against other municipal agencies $22,293 above.
What shifts do Hawthorne Police Department officers work?
The Patrol Division works a "3/12.5 work schedule for the term of this Memorandum of Understanding unless the Chief of Police determines the need to allocate resources to a 4/10 work schedule", on "one hundred and sixty (160) hours per twenty-eight (28) workday period." That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Hawthorne 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 Hawthorne | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$72,540 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$58,364 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$56,863 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$52,924 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$52,017 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$49,945 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$48,661 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$47,886 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$47,182 | #9 |
| 10 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$41,184 | #10 |
| 11 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$40,957 | #11 |
| 12 | Campbell Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $131,747 | +$40,668 | #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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