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Las Cruces 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.
Las Cruces Police Department starts at $54,080 a year — about $26.00 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $12,605 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $14,060 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Las Cruces, NM run about 10% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $59,948 would somewhere at average prices — $5,868 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 63 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isLas Cruces Police Department reported 200 sworn officers and 80 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 118,356.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 Las Cruces says about itself
The mission of the Las Cruces Police Department is to provide community-focused public safety and law enforcement services to area residents, businesses and visitors so they can live and thrive in a safe, peaceful environment.
What Las Cruces does
Las Cruces Police Department recruits and trains officers through a Basic Academy for municipal police service.
Shifts at Las Cruces
The Field Operations Services includes the Patrol Programs (Days, Swings, and Graves), Traffic Program, and Critical Incident Response.
Three named tours - days, swings and graves - is the classic eight-hour structure, and swings is the one that gets mis-entered because it starts in the afternoon and ends before midnight. BlueShifts holds each tour by name.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. City of Las Cruces Police recruiting - Important Information for Prospective Applicants — 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 Las Cruces 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. Las Cruces starts at $54,080, so $14,060 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Las Cruces Police Department officer make?
Las Cruces Police Department starts a new officer on $54,080 a year, about $26.00 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 Las Cruces Police recruiting - Important Information for Prospective Applicants.
Is that good pay for a police officer in New Mexico?
It ranks #16 of 22 agencies we have verified in New Mexico — 6 pay less, 15 pay more in the state — and #1,907 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $12,605 below, and against other municipal agencies $14,060 below.
What shifts do Las Cruces Police Department officers work?
The Field Operations Services includes the Patrol Programs (Days, Swings, and Graves), Traffic Program, and Critical Incident Response. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Las Cruces 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 NM
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Las | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Fe Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,046 | +$20,966 | #674 |
| 2 | New Mexico State Police | State | 1,174 | $70,845 | +$16,765 | #891 |
| 3 | Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office | County | 141 | $68,318 | +$14,238 | #1,032 |
| 4 | Farmington Police Department | Municipal | 119 | $66,102 | +$12,022 | #1,179 |
| 5 | Albuquerque Police Department | Municipal | 966 | $65,499 | +$11,419 | #1,220 |
| 6 | San Juan County Sheriff's Office | County | 86 | $63,045 | +$8,965 | #1,381 |
| 7 | Las Vegas Police Department | Municipal | 27 | $62,400 | +$8,320 | #1,424 |
| 8 | Valencia County Sheriff's Office | County | 48 | $62,150 | +$8,070 | #1,439 |
| 9 | Lincoln County Sheriff's Office | County | — | $60,757 | +$6,677 | #1,520 |
| 10 | Carlsbad Police Department | Municipal | 57 | $59,842 | +$5,762 | #1,589 |
| 11 | McKinley County Sheriff's Office | County | 37 | $59,675 | +$5,595 | #1,598 |
| 12 | Los Lunas Police Department | Municipal | — | $59,212 | +$5,132 | #1,620 |
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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