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Joliet 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.
Joliet Police Department starts at $72,275 a year — about $34.75 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $3,885 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $1,011 above the median for municipal agencies.
How big the department isJoliet Police Department reported 265 sworn officers and 70 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 152,211.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 Joliet says about itself
The Joliet Police Department is well versed and trained to encounter all types of calls for service, as to best serve our community. The mission of the Joliet Police Department is to enhance the quality of life in the City of Joliet by “Working with the community for a safe city”.
What Joliet does
Joliet Police Department says its mission is to enhance quality of life by working with the community for a safe city. It pledges to enforce laws, preserve peace, reduce fear and provide a safe environment to live, work and recreate within the framework of the U.S. Constitution. The department emphasizes high-quality police service and operates Administration, Operations, Investigations and Technical Services divisions
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Joliet Police Department official 2026 Entry-Level Po — open the source document
Spring 2026 official entry-level recruitment explicitly labels Step A $72,275 as the 'starting base salary.' The city also discloses that this amount includes prorated holiday and court stipends, both pensionable. Because the employer itself defines the combined Step A amount as starting base salary and does not publish a separable Step A wage-only figure, $72,275 is retained with that disclosure rather than inventing a subtraction
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 Joliet 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. Joliet starts at $72,275, so $988 above the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Joliet Police Department officer make?
Joliet Police Department starts a new officer on $72,275 a year, about $34.75 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 Joliet Police Department official 2026 Entry-Level Po.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Illinois?
It ranks #25 of 35 agencies we have verified in Illinois — 10 pay less, 24 pay more in the state — and #654 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $3,885 above, and against other municipal agencies $1,011 above.
Compare with another department
Put Joliet 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 IL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Joliet | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vernon Hills Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $94,460 | +$22,185 | #151 |
| 2 | Wilmette Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $93,156 | +$20,881 | #165 |
| 3 | Aurora Police Department | Municipal | 328 | $92,248 | +$19,973 | #176 |
| 4 | Des Plaines Police Department | Municipal | 97 | $91,440 | +$19,165 | #186 |
| 5 | Highland Park Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $91,158 | +$18,883 | #191 |
| 6 | Illinois State Police | State | 1,821 | $90,828 | +$18,553 | #199 |
| 7 | River Forest Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $90,106 | +$17,831 | #213 |
| 8 | Elgin Police Department | Municipal | 203 | $88,274 | +$15,999 | #245 |
| 9 | Lake County Sheriff's Office | County | 113 | $87,297 | +$15,022 | #259 |
| 10 | Woodridge Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $84,781 | +$12,506 | #294 |
| 11 | DeKalb Police Department | Municipal | 72 | $83,449 | +$11,174 | #326 |
| 12 | Rolling Meadows Police Department | Municipal | 49 | $81,439 | +$9,164 | #362 |
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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