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Mountain Home 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.
Mountain Home Police Department starts at $58,698 a year — about $28.22 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $7,987 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $9,442 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Idaho run about 5% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $61,467 would somewhere at average prices — $2,770 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 70 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 isMountain Home Police Department reported 24 sworn officers and 4 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.4 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 17,129.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 Mountain Home says about itself
The City of Mountain Home is the largest city and county seat of Elmore County: the current city population is about 16,500, with a total population in Elmore County of about 29,000, and the police department has 27 officers, five civilian staff members and five animal control center employees. Mountain Home is a safe and excellent place to live and raise a family with a genuine sense of community, and as police department and Animal Control Center employees, you should know that we not only work here, but we live here and raise our families here: we are involved in our community. The goal of the Patrol Bureau is to address community problems and assure a safe community environment through random, directed, and routine patrols, and at the Mountain Home Animal Control Center we believe: we are their shelter, you are their future.
What Mountain Home does
Mountain Home Police Department provides municipal law-enforcement services to the Elmore County seat, covering patrol and deterrence, enforcement of local, state and federal law, criminal and traffic investigation, and public education on traffic safety.
Mountain Home’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Panama 12-hour shift schedule, providing a balanced work-life schedule.
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September 2026
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Where the figure comes from
Checked 23 August 2026. This figure was advertised on the state POST job board on that date; postings there rotate, so the listing itself may since have closed. Idaho POST Agency Job Portal, agency-submitted posting — open the source document
$28.22/hour entry Patrol Officer, per the department's Idaho POST portal posting (open 29 May - 30 Sep 2026). Panama 12-hour schedule; night differential from 1 Oct 2026.
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 Mountain Home 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. Mountain Home starts at $58,698, so $9,442 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Mountain Home Police Department officer make?
Mountain Home Police Department starts a new officer on $58,698 a year, about $28.22 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 Idaho POST Agency Job Portal, agency-submitted posting.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Idaho?
It ranks #18 of 54 agencies we have verified in Idaho — 36 pay less, 17 pay more in the state — and #1,646 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $7,987 below, and against other municipal agencies $9,442 below.
What shifts do Mountain Home Police Department officers work?
Panama 12-hour shift schedule, providing a balanced work-life schedule. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Mountain Home 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 ID
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Mountain | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun Valley Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $75,005 | +$16,307 | #675 |
| 2 | Blaine County Sheriff's Office | County | 20 | $74,526 | +$15,829 | #697 |
| 3 | Hailey Police Department | Municipal | — | $72,280 | +$13,582 | #797 |
| 4 | Boise Police Department | Municipal | 326 | $69,514 | +$10,816 | #965 |
| 5 | Meridian Police Department | Municipal | 109 | $67,621 | +$8,923 | #1,085 |
| 6 | Post Falls Police Department | Municipal | 52 | $67,330 | +$8,632 | #1,106 |
| 7 | Coeur d'Alene Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $66,872 | +$8,174 | #1,130 |
| 8 | Kootenai County Sheriff's Office | County | 104 | $65,291 | +$6,594 | #1,239 |
| 9 | Ada County Sheriff's Office | County | 220 | $64,896 | +$6,198 | #1,270 |
| 10 | Nampa Police Department | Municipal | 154 | $64,626 | +$5,928 | #1,286 |
| 11 | McCall Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $63,773 | +$5,075 | #1,332 |
| 12 | Moscow Police Department | Municipal | 30 | $63,544 | +$4,846 | #1,344 |
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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