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Irvine 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.
Irvine Police Department starts at $101,691 a year — about $48.89 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $33,301 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $30,427 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA run about 14% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $89,544 somewhere at average prices — $12,147 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 170 against a national average of 100, where goods are 107. 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 isIrvine Police Department reported 246 sworn officers and 119 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 0.8 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 321,339.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 Irvine says about itself
The Irvine Police Department serves a vibrant, growing community of approximately 319,000 residents across 66 square miles in Orange County. Our officers and staff are committed to working collaboratively with residents, businesses and visitors to preserve peace, uphold the law fairly, and provide quality service to all.
What Irvine does
Irvine Police Department serves an Orange County city of roughly 320,000 across some 66 square miles, including the Orange County Great Park, with more than 257 police officers and 180 professional staff. Its patrol division of about 80 officers works either a four-day, 40-hour week or a three-day, 37-and-a-half-hour week with a buyback shift once a month, and officers pick day, swing or night shift by seniority. Alongside patrol there are traffic motor officers, traffic investigators and area traffic officers, and an investigations division of around 28 detectives covering fraud, property crime and crimes against persons. The department supplements the jurisdiction of the UC Irvine police on and around the campus.
Shifts at Irvine
Irvine patrol officers work either a four-day, 40-hour week or a three-day, 37½-hour week with a buyback shift once a month, and pick day, swing or night shift by seniority.
A workweek that changes with your bid, plus a buyback shift each month, is exactly the kind of schedule a paper calendar loses track of. BlueShifts holds your pattern and the extra shifts together, and rebuilds when your bid changes.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. City of Irvine official Police Officer class specification — open the source document
Police Recruit is a separate academy classification. The current Police Officer classification starts at $101,691.20 and performs sworn police duties; the recruit specification states successful completion may result in promotion to Police Officer. The published figure is therefore the post-academy Police Officer minimum.
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 Irvine 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 | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| 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 $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Irvine starts at $101,691, so $30,404 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Irvine Police Department officer make?
Irvine Police Department starts a new officer on $101,691 a year, about $48.89 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 Irvine official Police Officer class specification.
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #80 of 222 agencies we have verified in California — 142 pay less, 79 pay more in the state — and #88 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $33,301 above, and against other municipal agencies $30,427 above.
What shifts do Irvine Police Department officers work?
Irvine patrol officers work either a four-day, 40-hour week or a three-day, 37½-hour week with a buyback shift once a month, and pick day, swing or night shift by seniority. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Irvine 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 Irvine | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$61,928 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$47,752 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$46,251 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$42,312 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$41,405 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$39,333 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$38,049 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$37,274 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$36,570 | #9 |
| 10 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$30,572 | #10 |
| 11 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$30,345 | #11 |
| 12 | Campbell Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $131,747 | +$30,056 | #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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