Home › Police pay › Florida › Longboat Key Police Department
Longboat Key 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.
Longboat Key Police Department starts at $78,430 a year — about $37.71 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $11,163 above the median of the 2,053 agencies on this list, and $9,645 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Florida run about 3% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $75,841 somewhere at average prices — $2,589 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 122 against a national average of 100, where goods are 98. 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 isLongboat Key Police Department reported 19 sworn officers and 3 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 7,453.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 Longboat Key says about itself
The Mission of the Longboat Key Police Department is to safeguard life and property, preserve the peace, prevent and detect crime, and enforce the law while protecting the rights of all citizens.
What Longboat Key does
The Longboat Key Police Department is the municipal force for the Town of Longboat Key, a barrier-island town of about 7,500 residents divided almost equally between Manatee and Sarasota counties. It is accredited through the Commission for Florida Law Enforcement Accreditation, fields 20 full-time officers, two part-time officers and three civilian staff, and runs a marine unit covering the Gulf, intercoastal and bay waters around the island alongside officers who specialise in traffic homicide investigation and DUI enforcement.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 30 August 2026. Full-time Police Officer, Town of Longboat Key careers. — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 October 2024.
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 Longboat Key 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. Longboat Key starts at $78,430, so $9,644 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Longboat Key Police Department officer make?
Longboat Key Police Department starts a new officer on $78,430 a year, about $37.71 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 Full-time Police Officer, Town of Longboat Key careers..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Florida?
It ranks #11 of 303 agencies we have verified in Florida — 292 pay less, 10 pay more in the state — and #495 of 2,053 nationally. Against the national median it is $11,163 above, and against other municipal agencies $9,645 above.
Compare with another department
Put Longboat Key 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 FL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Longboat | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boca Raton Police Services Department | Municipal | 195 | $91,007 | +$12,577 | #212 |
| 2 | Fort Lauderdale Police Department | Municipal | 565 | $81,723 | +$3,293 | #390 |
| 3 | Plantation Police Department | Municipal | 164 | $81,000 | +$2,570 | #416 |
| 4 | Hillsboro Beach Police Department | Municipal | 15 | $80,954 | +$2,524 | #418 |
| 5 | Pinecrest Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $80,912 | +$2,481 | #421 |
| 6 | Sunny Isles Beach Police Department | Municipal | 65 | $80,000 | +$1,570 | #451 |
| 7 | Indian Creek Village Public Safety Department | Municipal | 10 | $79,850 | +$1,420 | #454 |
| 8 | Sunrise Police Department | Municipal | 190 | $79,071 | +$641 | #473 |
| 9 | Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,720 | $78,828 | +$398 | #479 |
| 10 | Aventura Police Department | Municipal | 91 | $78,556 | +$126 | #489 |
| 12 | Manalapan Police Department | Municipal | 13 | $78,280 | −$150 | #501 |
| 13 | Coral Springs Police Department | Municipal | 222 | $77,516 | −$914 | #523 |
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.
Scan to install
