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Memphis 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.
Memphis Police Department starts at $57,937 a year — about $27.85 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,453 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $13,327 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Tennessee run about 8% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $63,064 would somewhere at average prices — $5,127 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 72 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 isMemphis Police Department reported 1,966 sworn officers and 418 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 3.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 606,629.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 Memphis says about itself
The Memphis Police Department is a multi-dimensional agency dedicated to maintaining public safety through crime prevention, community policing and data-driven intelligence. The mission of the Memphis Police Department is to reduce crime by providing quality public safety in partnership with our community.
What Memphis does
Memphis Police Department recruits train at the Memphis Police Department Training Academy, a facility accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies and certified by the Department of Veterans Affairs, and are paid throughout. Graduates serve a twelve-month probationary period before moving onto the officer pay scale, and the department fields officers across nine patrol stations and more than seventy-five specialised units. Alongside the recruit route the department runs a Police Service Technician path, a lateral track for serving officers, and dispatcher routes. Officers may retire after twenty-five years of service, and the department is a state-approved site for Post-9/11 GI Bill on-the-job training, which pays eligible veterans and reservists an extra monthly amount during the academy and probation.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 18 August 2026. City of Memphis FY26 Salary Policy and Pay Plans, Police Non-Represented Base Rates (Special Market 4), effective 1 July 2025 — open the source document
The City's FY26 pay plan, approved by the City Council and effective 1 July 2025, lists POLICE RECRUIT (job code F515PL) and POLICE OFFICER II - PROBATIONARY (F513PL) at the SAME rate, $27.8544 an hour and $57,937.10 a year. Because the two are equal, the academy rate and the first rate after graduating are the same figure and the entry-pay choice does not arise. Sworn officers then move to the MPA Local 18 plan at $65,661.70 for 1-2 years of service, $70,616.00 at 2-3, $77,877.28 at 3-5 and $79,413.10 at 5. MPD'S OWN RECRUITING SITE IS PARTLY STALE: it still shows figures marked effective 1 July 2023, where Police Recruit was $54,611.44 - the recruit rate has since been raised to match the probationary rate. Its probationary figure of $57,937.19 is within nine cents of the current plan. Excluded as add-ons: $600 annual POST certification supplement, $450 uniform allotment, education pay of 5% for 85+ semester hours or 7.5% for a four-year degree, hazardous duty pay of $780 a year, bilingual pay of $912, longevity from five years, and shift differential.
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 Memphis 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. Memphis starts at $57,937, so $13,350 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Memphis Police Department officer make?
Memphis Police Department starts a new officer on $57,937 a year, about $27.85 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 Memphis FY26 Salary Policy and Pay Plans, Police Non-Represented Base Rates (Special Market 4), effective 1 July 2025.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Tennessee?
It ranks #7 of 12 agencies we have verified in Tennessee — 5 pay less, 6 pay more in the state — and #1,324 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,453 below, and against other municipal agencies $13,327 below.
Compare with another department
Put Memphis 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 TN
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Memphis | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brentwood Police Department | Municipal | 67 | $75,804 | +$17,867 | #529 |
| 2 | Metropolitan Nashville Police Department | Municipal | 1,546 | $70,904 | +$12,967 | #731 |
| 3 | Murfreesboro Police Department | Municipal | 313 | $67,922 | +$9,985 | #867 |
| 4 | Tennessee Highway Patrol | State | — | $65,804 | +$7,867 | #978 |
| 5 | Franklin Police Department | Municipal | 138 | $65,000 | +$7,063 | #1,020 |
| 6 | Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency — Law Enforcement Division | State | — | $59,700 | +$1,763 | #1,260 |
| 8 | Clarksville Police Department | Municipal | 328 | $57,712 | −$225 | #1,346 |
| 9 | Spring Hill Police Department | Municipal | 77 | $57,616 | −$321 | #1,355 |
| 10 | Shelby County Sheriff's Office | County | 621 | $51,518 | −$6,419 | #1,528 |
| 11 | Springfield Police Department | Municipal | 40 | $50,710 | −$7,227 | #1,543 |
| 12 | Kingsport Police Department | Municipal | 116 | $47,840 | −$10,097 | #1,602 |
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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