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Moab 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.
Moab Police Department starts at $66,747 a year — about $32.09 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $1,643 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $4,517 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Utah run about 1% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $67,514 would somewhere at average prices — $767 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 79, 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.
What Moab says about itself
The Moab City Police Department is dedicated to providing high quality, efficient law enforcement services to Moab citizens, business owners and visitors.
What Moab does
Moab Police Department fields nineteen sworn officers plus code enforcement, victim advocates and an animal shelter team, serving the gateway town to Arches and Canyonlands, and reports having held full staffing for a year with retention and professional development as stated priorities
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 August 2026. City of Moab Ordinance 2025-05, Pay Plan Schedules FY2025-2026, Attachment B (Police) with the Job Description Grade Charts, in the City Council packet of 27 May 2025 filed on the Utah Public Notice Website — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 July 2025.
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 Moab 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. Moab starts at $66,747, so $4,540 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Moab Police Department officer make?
Moab Police Department starts a new officer on $66,747 a year, about $32.09 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 Moab Ordinance 2025-05, Pay Plan Schedules FY2025-2026, Attachment B (Police) with the Job Description Grade Charts, in the City Council packet of 27 May 2025 filed on the Utah Public Notice Website.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Utah?
It ranks #12 of 31 agencies we have verified in Utah — 19 pay less, 11 pay more in the state — and #936 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $1,643 below, and against other municipal agencies $4,517 below.
Compare with another department
Put Moab 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 UT
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Moab | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salt Lake City Police Department | Municipal | 589 | $76,315 | +$9,568 | #503 |
| 2 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,982 | +$9,235 | #518 |
| 3 | Taylorsville Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,941 | +$9,194 | #523 |
| 4 | Utah Highway Patrol | State | 536 | $75,878 | +$9,131 | #525 |
| 5 | Sandy Police Department | Municipal | — | $73,112 | +$6,365 | #621 |
| 6 | West Valley City Police Department | Municipal | — | $73,045 | +$6,298 | #625 |
| 7 | Cottonwood Heights Police Department | Municipal | — | $69,763 | +$3,016 | #785 |
| 8 | Murray City Police Department | Municipal | 82 | $68,890 | +$2,142 | #821 |
| 9 | Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake | Municipal | — | $68,099 | +$1,352 | #858 |
| 10 | South Salt Lake Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,997 | +$250 | #916 |
| 11 | Orem Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $66,768 | +$21 | #931 |
| 13 | South Jordan Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,435 | −$312 | #952 |
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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