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Lafayette 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.
Lafayette Police Department starts at $45,000 a year — about $21.63 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $21,685 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $23,140 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Lafayette, LA run about 13% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $51,600 would somewhere at average prices — $6,600 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 59 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isLafayette Police Department reported 278 sworn officers and 53 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.3 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 122,489.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 Lafayette says about itself
The Mission of the Lafayette Police Department is to provide a staff of civilian employees and police officers who work to enhance the quality of life in Lafayette by enforcing laws, protecting citizens and property, and preserving peace.
What Lafayette does
Lafayette Police Department provides municipal police and public-safety service and recruits entry-level Police Officers.
Shifts at Lafayette
Louisiana Revised Statute 33:2213 names this city directly: "the city of Lafayette may establish a work period not to exceed twenty-eight days for police department employees provided they are compensated at the rate of one and one-half times their regular rate of pay, or credited with compensatory time on a one and one-half time basis, for all hours in the work period that exceed an average of forty hours per week." The same statute gives ANY municipality it covers the option of a fourteen-day cycle of twelve-hour days worked Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the first week and Wednesday and Thursday of the second - the arrangement most Louisiana departments run on - but Lafayette's own subsection sets a work period of up to twenty-eight days rather than that fortnight.
A work period of up to twenty-eight days means overtime is measured against an AVERAGE of forty hours a week across the whole period, not against any one week - so what you are owed depends on a month of days, not seven. BlueShifts counts the hours as they are worked and keeps the work period beside the calendar month.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. Lafayette Consolidated Government - Join the Police Department — open the source document
Their source is effective 10 August 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 Lafayette 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. Lafayette starts at $45,000, so $23,140 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Lafayette Police Department officer make?
Lafayette Police Department starts a new officer on $45,000 a year, about $21.63 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 Lafayette Consolidated Government - Join the Police Department.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Louisiana?
It ranks #10 of 28 agencies we have verified in Louisiana — 18 pay less, 9 pay more in the state — and #2,207 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $21,685 below, and against other municipal agencies $23,140 below.
What shifts do Lafayette Police Department officers work?
Louisiana Revised Statute 33:2213 names this city directly: "the city of Lafayette may establish a work period not to exceed twenty-eight days for police department employees provided they are compensated at the rate of one and one-half times their regular rate of pay, or credited with compensatory time on a one and one-half time basis, for all hours in the work period that exceed an average of forty hours per week." The same statute gives ANY municipality it covers the option of a fourteen-day cycle of twelve-hour days worked Monday, Tuesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the first week and Wednesday and Thursday of the second - the arrangement most Louisiana departments run on - but Lafayette's own subsection sets a work period of up to twenty-eight days rather than that fortnight. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Lafayette 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 LA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Lafayette | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office | County | 916 | $58,200 | +$13,200 | #1,664 |
| 2 | Baton Rouge Police Department | Municipal | 544 | $58,000 | +$13,000 | #1,677 |
| 3 | Louisiana State Police | State | 1,192 | $57,680 | +$12,680 | #1,719 |
| 4 | Kenner Police Department | Municipal | 152 | $54,700 | +$9,700 | #1,877 |
| 5 | New Orleans Police Department | Municipal | 906 | $54,421 | +$9,421 | #1,894 |
| 6 | Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries — Enforcement Division | State | — | $53,997 | +$8,997 | #1,917 |
| 7 | Gretna Police Department | Municipal | 93 | $49,118 | +$4,118 | #2,114 |
| 8 | Lake Charles Police Department | Municipal | 138 | $48,500 | +$3,500 | #2,129 |
| 9 | Alexandria Police Department | Municipal | 93 | $48,271 | +$3,271 | #2,138 |
| 11 | Covington Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $43,672 | −$1,328 | #2,227 |
| 12 | Sulphur Police Department | Municipal | 61 | $43,553 | −$1,447 | #2,228 |
| 13 | Bossier City Police Department | Municipal | 200 | $42,576 | −$2,424 | #2,237 |
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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