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Keene 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.
Keene Police Department starts at $70,956 a year — about $34.11 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $4,271 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $2,816 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in New Hampshire run about 4% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $68,119 somewhere at average prices — $2,837 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 134 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 isKeene Police Department reported 36 sworn officers and 10 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 23,034.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 Keene says about itself
The Keene Police Department is a full service law enforcement agency operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, to respond to the needs of our community.
What Keene does
The Keene Police Department is the municipal force for the City of Keene, the seat of Cheshire County in south-west New Hampshire. The City describes it as a full-service agency working around the clock.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 25 September 2026. City of Keene, Police Employment page: "Starting Pay (Probationary Police Officer): $70,956"; "Uncertified Hires: Starting at $32.40 / hour". — open the source document
The City prints one starting salary for a probationary officer, and the uncertified hourly rate on the same page is the same pay ($32.40 over 2,190 hours = $70,956), so new officers are hired onto it and sent to the academy - there is no lower recruit rate to bar. The annual is used as printed. The certified starting pay the City also prints, "$78,708- $101,528 depending on experience", is an experience band for officers already certified in New Hampshire or elsewhere, so it is not the figure. The page was last modified on 12 August 2026. Excluded: the $10,000 and $8,000 sign-on bonuses, the veteran incentive, relocation aid and the fitness bonus.
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 Keene 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. Keene starts at $70,956, so $2,816 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Keene Police Department officer make?
Keene Police Department starts a new officer on $70,956 a year, about $34.11 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 Keene, Police Employment page: "Starting Pay (Probationary Police Officer): $70,956"; "Uncertified Hires: Starting at $32.40 / hour"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in New Hampshire?
It ranks #1 of 17 agencies we have verified in New Hampshire — the highest in the state in the state — and #883 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $4,271 above, and against other municipal agencies $2,816 above.
Compare with another department
Put Keene 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 NH
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Keene | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Portsmouth Police Department | Municipal | 64 | $70,060 | −$896 | #933 |
| 3 | Manchester Police Department | Municipal | 250 | $68,016 | −$2,940 | #1,052 |
| 4 | Concord Police Department | Municipal | 79 | $67,995 | −$2,961 | #1,057 |
| 5 | Greenland Police Department | Municipal | 8 | $67,700 | −$3,256 | #1,076 |
| 6 | New Hampshire State Police | State | 350 | $66,872 | −$4,084 | #1,129 |
| 7 | Londonderry Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $66,664 | −$4,292 | #1,145 |
| 8 | Jaffrey Police Department | Municipal | 10 | $65,850 | −$5,106 | #1,197 |
| 9 | Hampton Police Department | Municipal | 37 | $64,896 | −$6,060 | #1,273 |
| 10 | Derry Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $64,314 | −$6,642 | #1,304 |
| 11 | Durham Police Department | Municipal | 21 | $64,268 | −$6,688 | #1,305 |
| 12 | Rochester Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $63,960 | −$6,996 | #1,322 |
| 13 | Chesterfield Police Department | Municipal | 4 | $61,776 | −$9,180 | #1,464 |
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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