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Lexington 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.
Lexington Police Department starts at $64,424 a year — about $30.97 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $2,843 below the median of the 2,053 agencies on this list, and $4,362 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Kentucky run about 10% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $71,456 would somewhere at average prices — $7,032 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 64 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 isLexington Police Department reported 541 sworn officers and 102 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 330,994.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 Lexington says about itself
The Lexington Police Department is committed to serving all residents and visitors with a high level of professionalism, integrity, transparency and dedication to community policing.
What Lexington does
The Lexington Police Department, established in 1832, is the largest division within the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, with an authorized strength of 641 sworn officers and nearly 150 civilian personnel. Because Lexington and Fayette County share a merged government, the department's jurisdiction runs across the whole county - urban center, suburban neighbourhoods and rural countryside alike. Patrol is the largest bureau and is organised into three sectors, West, Central and East, each under a commander and each divided into smaller beats so officers stay with one part of the city. Alongside patrol the department fields specialised units including K-9, collision reconstruction, criminal investigations, an emergency response team and forensic services.
Lexington’s rotation, in BlueShifts
4/10 work schedule with 3 days off, fixed shifts and shift differential pay.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
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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.
A four-day, ten-hour week is a seven-day cycle, so it does sit on the week - and Lexington fixes the shift rather than rotating it, which makes the year genuinely plannable. BlueShifts draws the cycle out months ahead and keeps the shift differential days visible against the shifts that earned them.
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Where the figure comes from
Checked 27 August 2026. Starting salary, Lexington Police Department compensation and benefits page, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. — open the source document
STARTING SALARY $64,424 A YEAR, $30.97 AN HOUR, with a $3,000 bonus on completing the department's training academy. KENTUCKY ADDS A STATE STIPEND ON TOP OF THE CITY'S SALARY AND THE CITY PUBLISHES IT TWO YEARS FORWARD: KLEFPF funding of $4,653 for FY27 and $4,746 for FY28, paid annually to certified officers. Also published: a take-home vehicle available out of county, a $100 monthly equipment subsidy, a $500 annual uniform allowance, a $530.74 monthly credit toward the flexible benefits package, up to $2,000 a year in tuition reimbursement, up to four weeks of parental leave, and a pension at 25 years of service. THE ACADEMY IS NON-RESIDENTIAL - recruits return home at the end of each training day - and graduates leave it with an associate's degree from Bluegrass Community and Technical College. FOR MILITARY APPLICANTS the city publishes veterans' preference points, 21 days of paid military leave a year that rolls over unused, a military liaison officer who follows up with deployed officers, and a commitment to supplement any difference between the LFUCG salary and military pay during deployment.
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 Lexington 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 | $68,786 | $163,619 | 1372 |
| County | $35,000 | $64,438 | $132,263 | 459 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,400 | $110,916 | 144 |
| 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 $4,700 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,100 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Lexington starts at $64,424, so $4,362 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Lexington Police Department officer make?
Lexington Police Department starts a new officer on $64,424 a year, about $30.97 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 Starting salary, Lexington Police Department compensation and benefits page, Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Kentucky?
It ranks #4 of 14 agencies we have verified in Kentucky — 10 pay less, 3 pay more in the state — and #1,190 of 2,053 nationally. Against the national median it is $2,843 below, and against other municipal agencies $4,362 below.
What shifts do Lexington Police Department officers work?
4/10 work schedule with 3 days off, fixed shifts and shift differential pay. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Lexington 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 KY
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Lexington | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kentucky State Police | State | 1,078 | $71,000 | +$6,576 | #808 |
| 2 | Louisville Metro Police Department | Municipal | 1,013 | $66,760 | +$2,336 | #1,054 |
| 3 | Paducah Police Department | Municipal | 68 | $65,146 | +$722 | #1,148 |
| 5 | Richmond Police Department | Municipal | 65 | $63,988 | −$436 | #1,211 |
| 6 | Bowling Green Police Department | Municipal | 140 | $63,839 | −$585 | #1,220 |
| 7 | University of Kentucky Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 76 | $63,200 | −$1,224 | #1,260 |
| 8 | Owensboro Police Department | Municipal | 101 | $62,254 | −$2,170 | #1,311 |
| 9 | Elizabethtown Police Department | Municipal | 77 | $57,200 | −$7,224 | #1,585 |
| 10 | Georgetown Police Department | Municipal | 75 | $55,345 | −$9,079 | #1,656 |
| 11 | Henderson Police Department | Municipal | 58 | $51,778 | −$12,646 | #1,806 |
| 12 | Hopkinsville Police Department | Municipal | 72 | $51,239 | −$13,185 | #1,821 |
| 13 | Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources — Law Enforcement Division | State | — | $47,794 | −$16,630 | #1,934 |
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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