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Marion 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.
Marion Police Department starts at $65,656 a year — about $31.57 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $2,734 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $5,608 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Iowa run about 12% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $74,811 would somewhere at average prices — $9,155 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 65 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isMarion Police Department reported 45 sworn officers and 14 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.1 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 42,788.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 Marion says about itself
The department's mission is to effectively use resources to respond, investigate and prevent crime in order to enhance the quality of life. We employ 48 sworn and six civilian employees. The agency consists of the following bureaus: administration, patrol and investigations.
What Marion does
Marion Police Department recruits entry-level and lateral Police Officers and provides patrol and specialized municipal law-enforcement services.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. City of Marion Police Recruitment — open the source document
Current City recruitment page lists the 2025-2027 Police Officer annual salary for 0-1 year at $65,656. Entry-level recruiting is expressly active; lateral service credit is separately provided. Class: Police Officer. Trainee class: City expressly recruits entry-level Police Officers; lateral officers receive credit for prior continuous service. City recruitment page identifies Police Officers as municipal law-enforcement personnel and subjects applicants to POST, physical, background and other police hiring standards.
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 Marion 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 | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| 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 $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Marion starts at $65,656, so $5,631 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Marion Police Department officer make?
Marion Police Department starts a new officer on $65,656 a year, about $31.57 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 Marion Police Recruitment.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Iowa?
It ranks #24 of 28 agencies we have verified in Iowa — 4 pay less, 23 pay more in the state — and #985 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $2,734 below, and against other municipal agencies $5,608 below.
Compare with another department
Put Marion 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 IA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Marion | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iowa County Sheriff's Office | County | 14 | $85,550 | +$19,894 | #281 |
| 2 | Des Moines Police Department | Municipal | 367 | $84,635 | +$18,979 | #297 |
| 3 | Norwalk Police Department | Municipal | 22 | $76,710 | +$11,054 | #486 |
| 4 | Ankeny Police Department | Municipal | 78 | $76,648 | +$10,992 | #491 |
| 5 | Urbandale Police Department | Municipal | 58 | $76,028 | +$10,372 | #516 |
| 6 | Woodbury County Sheriff's Office | County | 44 | $73,944 | +$8,288 | #597 |
| 7 | Linn County Sheriff's Office | County | 120 | $73,216 | +$7,560 | #616 |
| 8 | Chickasaw County Sheriff's Office | County | 10 | $71,822 | +$6,166 | #678 |
| 9 | Mason City Police Department | Municipal | 40 | $71,448 | +$5,792 | #698 |
| 10 | Johnson County Sheriff's Office | County | 81 | $70,871 | +$5,215 | #732 |
| 11 | Iowa Department of Natural Resources — Conservation Law Enforcement | State | — | $70,574 | +$4,918 | #742 |
| 12 | Davenport Police Department | Municipal | 143 | $70,322 | +$4,666 | #752 |
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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