Home › Police pay › Illinois › Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation Police
Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation Police 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.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation Police starts at $64,344 a year — about $30.93 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $2,341 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $822 below the median for state agencies.
What Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation says about itself
To serve, protect, and educate the citizens of, and visitors to, the state of Illinois in their outdoor recreational endeavors. To be a vigilant guardian of the natural resources, public safety, and homeland security of Illinois. Conservation Police Officers are vested with full state-wide police authority and are trained to the highest standards for law enforcement professionals in Illinois.
What Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation does
Illinois Conservation Police Officers are sworn state law-enforcement officers assigned to the Department of Natural Resources Office of Law Enforcement. They enforce Illinois conservation, boating and related laws and perform public-safety and investigative duties throughout the state.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation’s rotation, in BlueShifts
CPOs are assigned to a nine-hour, 5 on 3 off rotating work schedule - week 1 Thursday to Saturday off, week 2 Friday to Sunday off, week 3 Saturday to Monday off, and so on.
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.
An eight-day cycle never lines up with a seven-day week, so your days off walk forward through the calendar and never sit on the same weekday twice. BlueShifts draws the whole rotation months ahead.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. State of Illinois CMS / Illinois FOP Labor Council RC-061 salary schedule — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 July 2026.
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 Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation 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. Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation starts at $64,344, so $822 below the state middle.
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
Common questions
How much does a Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation Police officer make?
Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation Police starts a new officer on $64,344 a year, about $30.93 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 State of Illinois CMS / Illinois FOP Labor Council RC-061 salary schedule.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Illinois?
It ranks #37 of 43 agencies we have verified in Illinois — 6 pay less, 36 pay more in the state — and #1,299 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $2,341 below, and against other state agencies $822 below.
What shifts do Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation Police officers work?
CPOs are assigned to a nine-hour, 5 on 3 off rotating work schedule - week 1 Thursday to Saturday off, week 2 Friday to Sunday off, week 3 Saturday to Monday off, and so on. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Illinois Department of Natural Resources — Conservation Police 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 IL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Illinois | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vernon Hills Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $94,460 | +$30,116 | #192 |
| 2 | Wilmette Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $93,156 | +$28,812 | #207 |
| 3 | Oak Park Police Department | Municipal | 91 | $92,716 | +$28,372 | #214 |
| 4 | Skokie Police Department | Municipal | 102 | $92,405 | +$28,061 | #219 |
| 5 | Aurora Police Department | Municipal | 328 | $92,248 | +$27,904 | #223 |
| 6 | Des Plaines Police Department | Municipal | 97 | $91,440 | +$27,096 | #235 |
| 7 | Highland Park Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $91,158 | +$26,814 | #240 |
| 8 | Naperville Police Department | Municipal | 186 | $90,965 | +$26,621 | #246 |
| 9 | Illinois State Police | State | 1,821 | $90,828 | +$26,484 | #251 |
| 10 | River Forest Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $90,106 | +$25,762 | #267 |
| 11 | Evanston Police Department | Municipal | 140 | $88,656 | +$24,312 | #292 |
| 12 | Elgin Police Department | Municipal | 203 | $88,274 | +$23,930 | #301 |
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
