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Kalispell 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.
Kalispell Police Department starts at $79,334 a year — about $38.14 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,944 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $8,070 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Montana run about 5% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $83,823 would somewhere at average prices — $4,489 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 72 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isKalispell Police Department reported 52 sworn officers and 11 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 33,020.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 Kalispell says about itself
The Kalispell Police Department strives to inspire a sense of safety in the community through specialized police services including patrol, investigations, school resource officers, special response.
What Kalispell does
Kalispell Police Department recruits Police Officer candidates through written testing, the Montana Physical Abilities Test and interviews. The department offers patrol and career-enhancement assignments including bike patrol and canine work and trains newly hired officers for municipal law-enforcement service.
Kalispell’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Kalispell's patrol division provides 24-hour service working three traditional teams, four days a week on 10-hour shifts, 365 days a year.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
WorkingOff
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.
Kalispell publishes the days on and off but not which are days and which are nights. In BlueShifts you choose that yourself — every shift can be a day, a night or a 24-hour tour, and the calendar marks it with a sun, a moon or a clock.
Four tens across three teams means your days off move through the week rather than sitting on the weekend. BlueShifts lays the cycle out months ahead so you can see which weekends you actually have.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. City of Kalispell / Kalispell Police Association collective bargaining agreement, July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029, Schedule A-1 — 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.
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 Kalispell 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. Kalispell starts at $79,334, so $8,047 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Kalispell Police Department officer make?
Kalispell Police Department starts a new officer on $79,334 a year, about $38.14 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 Kalispell / Kalispell Police Association collective bargaining agreement, July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029, Schedule A-1.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Montana?
It ranks #4 of 23 agencies we have verified in Montana — 19 pay less, 3 pay more in the state — and #424 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,944 above, and against other municipal agencies $8,070 above.
What shifts do Kalispell Police Department officers work?
Kalispell's patrol division provides 24-hour service working three traditional teams, four days a week on 10-hour shifts, 365 days a year. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Kalispell 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 MT
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Kalispell | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Missoula Police Department | Municipal | 117 | $95,326 | +$15,992 | #142 |
| 2 | Bozeman Police Department | Municipal | 73 | $79,581 | +$247 | #416 |
| 3 | Gallatin County Sheriff's Office | County | 72 | $79,456 | +$122 | #421 |
| 5 | Missoula County Sheriff's Office | County | 59 | $77,563 | −$1,771 | #468 |
| 6 | Great Falls Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $76,253 | −$3,081 | #504 |
| 7 | Cascade County Sheriff's Office | County | 43 | $73,778 | −$5,556 | #603 |
| 8 | Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office | County | 65 | $72,800 | −$6,534 | #637 |
| 9 | Belgrade Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $71,761 | −$7,573 | #682 |
| 10 | Montana Highway Patrol | State | 225 | $71,240 | −$8,094 | #712 |
| 11 | Lewis and Clark County Sheriff's Office | County | 54 | $69,285 | −$10,049 | #799 |
| 12 | Billings Police Department | Municipal | 164 | $69,056 | −$10,278 | #812 |
| 13 | Butte-Silver Bow Law Enforcement Department | Municipal | — | $67,648 | −$11,686 | #882 |
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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