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Hopkinton 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.
Hopkinton Police Department starts at $60,174 a year — about $28.93 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $6,510 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $7,966 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Massachusetts run about 6% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $56,899 somewhere at average prices — $3,276 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 152 against a national average of 100, where goods are 99. 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 isHopkinton Police Department reported 26 sworn officers and 10 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.3 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 20,233.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 Hopkinton says about itself
The members of the Hopkinton Police Department will serve as partners with our citizens to maintain a safe and peaceful community, committing ourselves to the preservation of life, protection of property, and safeguarding individual liberties.
What Hopkinton does
The Hopkinton Police Department is a full-service agency covering about 28 square miles of Middlesex County, the town best known as the start of the Boston Marathon. It is staffed by a chief, a deputy chief, two lieutenants, six sergeants, sixteen full-time patrol officers and an administrative manager. The Massachusetts Police Accreditation Commission granted it full accreditation effective 8 January 2026, after the department met 274 mandatory and 95 optional standards drawn from the Massachusetts POST Commission's framework
Where the figure comes from
Checked 6 September 2026. Town of Hopkinton police officer posting (Academy Preferred), published by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts — open the source document
The Town's own posting, dated 5 February 2026 and hosted by the Commonwealth, read 6 September 2026: base starting salary $28.93 to $40.72 an hour, so $28.93 x 2,080 = $60,174.40 a year at the entry step. The post is headed Academy Preferred and states that recent academy graduates, current academy cadets AND NON-ACADEMY CANDIDATES are encouraged to apply, with the qualification being enrolment in, attendance at or completion of an MPTC certified academy or the ability to obtain an MPTC waiver - so no certification and no prior sworn service is required. Lateral officers are considered separately for prior service and may be placed higher in the range. Sixty college credits or four years' honourable military service is preferred, not required
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 Hopkinton 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. Hopkinton starts at $60,174, so $7,966 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Hopkinton Police Department officer make?
Hopkinton Police Department starts a new officer on $60,174 a year, about $28.93 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 Town of Hopkinton police officer posting (Academy Preferred), published by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Massachusetts?
It ranks #17 of 19 agencies we have verified in Massachusetts — 2 pay less, 16 pay more in the state — and #1,555 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $6,510 below, and against other municipal agencies $7,966 below.
Compare with another department
Put Hopkinton 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 MA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Hopkinton | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Everett Police Department | Municipal | 120 | $95,568 | +$35,394 | #178 |
| 2 | Nantucket Police Department | Municipal | 40 | $92,144 | +$31,970 | #225 |
| 3 | Massachusetts State Police | State | 2,565 | $80,213 | +$20,038 | #491 |
| 4 | Tufts University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 52 | $75,962 | +$15,787 | #632 |
| 5 | Barnstable Police Department | Municipal | 109 | $75,400 | +$15,226 | #655 |
| 6 | Boston Police Department | Municipal | 2,172 | $71,861 | +$11,686 | #822 |
| 7 | Plymouth Police Department | Municipal | 108 | $67,927 | +$7,752 | #1,062 |
| 8 | West Stockbridge Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,797 | +$6,622 | #1,133 |
| 9 | Haverhill Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $66,652 | +$6,477 | #1,146 |
| 10 | Rowley Police Department | Municipal | 10 | $66,397 | +$6,222 | #1,168 |
| 11 | Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs — Environmental Police | State | — | $65,447 | +$5,273 | #1,222 |
| 12 | Brockton Police Department | Municipal | 179 | $63,971 | +$3,796 | #1,321 |
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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