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Marietta 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.
Marietta Police Department starts at $51,002 a year — about $24.52 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $15,683 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $17,138 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Georgia run about 4% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $52,965 would somewhere at average prices — $1,963 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 89 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 isMarietta Police Department reported 141 sworn officers and 46 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 63,657.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 Marietta says about itself
The Investigative Services Division is responsible for investigating unsolved crimes and handling long-term investigations related to gangs, narcotics, and other organized crimes trough multi-jurisdictional task forces.
What Marietta does
The Marietta Police Department serves the city of Marietta, Georgia, the seat of Cobb County north-west of Atlanta. It hires officers on a compensation program that sets one entry base for a high school diploma and raises it for an associate or bachelor's degree or for active duty military service, paying Georgia POST-certified laterals at a market rate instead. Shift officers work eight-hour shifts on a four-on, two-off rotation, with evening and morning watch differentials above the base.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. City of Marietta, Police Education/Experience Compensation Program (Legistar 20240428 Exhibit B) — "New hire base salary (high school diploma/GED) $51,001.60"; the City's Salary and Benefits page dates it "Effective as of April 28, 2024". — open the source document
$51,001.60 is the City's own annual figure for a new hire with a high school diploma or GED and no arithmetic has been applied to it. THIS ROW REPLACES A READING THAT WAS BARRED AND RIGHTLY SO: earlier passes found only "$45,011 pre-academy" and "$47,611 Once Academy Begins", effective 1 January 2023, and both are training-period rates - the second is gated on the academy STARTING, not on completing Georgia POST certification. THE CITY HAS SINCE RETIRED THAT TWO-TIER STRUCTURE. The current compensation program publishes a single entry base with credential uplifts above it and no pre-academy tier at all, and the City's own 2026 Police Career Development Plan repeats $51,001.60 verbatim, so the figure is current. WATCH THE GRADE MINIMUM, BECAUSE IT IS THE BARRED NUMBER IN DISGUISE: the FY2023 plan's grade 20P Police Officer MINIMUM is $45,011.20 - to the cent the pre-academy rate - so in Marietta the grade minimum WAS the training rate, and it is the "new hire base salary" line, not the grade minimum, that is the entry figure. Excluded: the credential rates of $52,249.60 for an associate degree or two years' active duty and $53,560.00 for a bachelor's or four years', which are premiums on the same entry; the lateral "Market Rate"; the Georgia state supplement; and the hourly education add-ons. THE EFFECTIVE DATE CARRIES A CAVEAT THE CITY CREATED: the plan document itself prints no date, only the header "Legistar 20240428 Exhibit B", and in Marietta's FY2023 plan "LEGISTAR 20220508" is an ITEM NUMBER rather than a date. "April 28, 2024" is the City's own published effective date on the Salary and Benefits page and is used here, but it may be the page author reading the item number as a date.
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 Marietta 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. Marietta starts at $51,002, so $17,138 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Marietta Police Department officer make?
Marietta Police Department starts a new officer on $51,002 a year, about $24.52 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 Marietta, Police Education/Experience Compensation Program (Legistar 20240428 Exhibit B) — "New hire base salary (high school diploma/GED) $51,001.60"; the City's Salary and Benefits page dates it "Effective as of April 28, 2024"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Georgia?
It ranks #65 of 80 agencies we have verified in Georgia — 15 pay less, 64 pay more in the state — and #2,030 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $15,683 below, and against other municipal agencies $17,138 below.
Compare with another department
Put Marietta 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 GA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Marietta | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chamblee Police Department | Municipal | 68 | $73,733 | +$22,731 | #729 |
| 2 | Sandy Springs Police Department | Municipal | 149 | $71,686 | +$20,685 | #836 |
| 3 | Georgia Bureau of Investigation | State | 338 | $64,977 | +$13,975 | #1,265 |
| 4 | Duluth Police Department | Municipal | 57 | $64,755 | +$13,753 | #1,279 |
| 5 | Garden City Police Department | Municipal | 35 | $64,072 | +$13,070 | #1,314 |
| 6 | Georgia State Patrol | State | — | $63,684 | +$12,682 | #1,336 |
| 7 | South Fulton Police Department | Municipal | 213 | $63,440 | +$12,438 | #1,354 |
| 8 | Hall County Sheriff's Office | County | 283 | $63,365 | +$12,363 | #1,359 |
| 9 | Roswell Police Department | Municipal | 154 | $62,462 | +$11,461 | #1,413 |
| 10 | Dunwoody Police Department | Municipal | 66 | $62,301 | +$11,299 | #1,428 |
| 11 | Savannah Police Department | Municipal | 425 | $61,989 | +$10,987 | #1,450 |
| 12 | Alpharetta Police Department | Municipal | 105 | $61,100 | +$10,098 | #1,495 |
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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