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Metro Transit 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.
Metro Transit Police Department starts at $84,656 a year — about $40.70 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $16,266 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $24,461 above the median for special jurisdiction agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Minnesota run about 1% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $85,840 would somewhere at average prices — $1,184 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 91, where goods are 101. 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.
What Metro Transit says about itself
We are fully-sworn peace officers with the same powers of arrest as other city or county law enforcement agencies.
What Metro Transit does
Metro Transit Police is the dedicated public-safety agency for Minnesota's largest transit system, covering buses, light rail, commuter trains, facilities and rights-of-way across more than 60 communities. Its officers are fully sworn peace officers with the same powers of arrest as any city or county agency, and can act off transit property.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. employer-controlled GovernmentJobs/NEOGOV tenancy or permitted Minnesota City Jobs posting — open the source document
Employer explicitly publishes Start -- $40.70 hourly / $84,656 annual. Class: Police Officer Full-Time. Trainee class: NO; employer expressly recruits full-time Police Officers and lateral full-time Police Officers separately. Permitted employer-controlled recruitment identifies the qualifying class as Police Officer/Patrol Officer and describes sworn patrol, law-enforcement, investigation, arrest, peacekeeping and/or public-safety duties.
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 Metro Transit 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. Metro Transit starts at $84,656, so $24,461 above the special jurisdiction middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Metro Transit Police Department officer make?
Metro Transit Police Department starts a new officer on $84,656 a year, about $40.70 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 employer-controlled GovernmentJobs/NEOGOV tenancy or permitted Minnesota City Jobs posting.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Minnesota?
It ranks #37 of 100 agencies we have verified in Minnesota — 63 pay less, 36 pay more in the state — and #295 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $16,266 above, and against other special jurisdiction agencies $24,461 above.
Compare with another department
Put Metro Transit 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 MN
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Metro | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blaine Police Department | Municipal | 80 | $101,733 | +$17,077 | #86 |
| 2 | Stillwater Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $94,328 | +$9,672 | #152 |
| 3 | Columbia Heights Police Department | Municipal | 29 | $93,725 | +$9,069 | #157 |
| 4 | Carver County Sheriff's Office | County | 77 | $93,683 | +$9,027 | #158 |
| 5 | Oakdale Police Department | Municipal | 39 | $93,538 | +$8,882 | #161 |
| 6 | Richfield Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $93,226 | +$8,570 | #163 |
| 7 | Maplewood Police Department | Municipal | 56 | $93,038 | +$8,382 | #167 |
| 8 | Forest Lake Police Department | Municipal | 20 | $92,789 | +$8,133 | #169 |
| 9 | Apple Valley Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $92,768 | +$8,112 | #170 |
| 10 | Coon Rapids Police Department | Municipal | 73 | $92,123 | +$7,467 | #179 |
| 11 | Saint Paul Police Department | Municipal | 562 | $91,291 | +$6,635 | #188 |
| 12 | Woodbury Police Department | Municipal | 80 | $91,187 | +$6,531 | #190 |
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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