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New Bern 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.
New Bern Police Department starts at $49,341 a year — about $23.72 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $17,344 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $18,799 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in North Carolina run about 6% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $52,309 would somewhere at average prices — $2,968 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 81 against a national average of 100, where goods are 97. 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 isNew Bern Police Department reported 85 sworn officers and 25 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.4 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 34,980.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 New Bern says about itself
Upholding the traditions of a noble profession, the New Bern Police Department will positively IMPACT our community by partnering with citizens and businesses to improve the quality of life and maintain a safe place to live, work and visit.
What New Bern does
The New Bern Police Department serves the city of New Bern, North Carolina, at the meeting of the Neuse and Trent rivers in Craven County. It hires officers who hold no Basic Law Enforcement Training certification at one grade and moves them to a higher grade on certifying, publishing degree premiums above that for an associate's or a bachelor's, and handling lateral transfers on experience instead.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. City of New Bern, Police Department — Employment Options: "BLET Certified | Grade 17 | $49,341.00". — open the source document
$49,341.00 is the City's own annual figure and no arithmetic has been applied to it. THE GATE IS CERTIFICATION AND IT IS CARRIED BY THE ROW LABELS RATHER THAN BY A SENTENCE: the City publishes "Non-BLET Certified | Grade 13 | $40,593.00" and "BLET Certified | Grade 17 | $49,341.00", so the non-certified hire enters at grade 13 and MOVES TO GRADE 17 ON CERTIFYING. That lands on completion of North Carolina Basic Law Enforcement Training, which makes the higher rate the post-academy sworn figure under the Berkeley County reading, not the Lexington one. It is not years-of-service based and it is not restricted to officers hired already certified - the City handles those separately, noting "Salary for officers seeking lateral transfers will vary depending on experience". Excluded from the figure: the degree premiums on the same grade, $50,574.53 with an associate's and $51,808.05 with a bachelor's, which are credential uplifts on the same entry rather than different classes. A STALENESS RISK IS NAMED RATHER THAN HIDDEN, AND IT IS A REAL ONE: New Bern runs a SECOND, OLDER police employment page at employment.php which is still live and still public, showing grades 10 and 14 at $30,878 and $37,533 with a posting date of 17 December 2020. The City does not retire superseded salary pages. This row takes the later revision - higher grades, higher money - but NEITHER PAGE CARRIES A FISCAL YEAR OR A LAST-UPDATED DATE. NEXT DOCUMENT: the classification and pay schedule inside the City's FY27 adopted budget, or the Board of Aldermen agenda packet carrying the salary ordinance, either of which would date this figure.
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 New Bern 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. New Bern starts at $49,341, so $18,799 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a New Bern Police Department officer make?
New Bern Police Department starts a new officer on $49,341 a year, about $23.72 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 New Bern, Police Department — Employment Options: "BLET Certified | Grade 17 | $49,341.00"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in North Carolina?
It ranks #48 of 53 agencies we have verified in North Carolina — 5 pay less, 47 pay more in the state — and #2,108 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $17,344 below, and against other municipal agencies $18,799 below.
Compare with another department
Put New Bern 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 NC
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs New | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Knightdale Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $67,363 | +$18,022 | #1,104 |
| 2 | Cary Police Department | Municipal | 194 | $65,104 | +$15,763 | #1,247 |
| 3 | Wake Forest Police Department | Municipal | 96 | $65,093 | +$15,752 | #1,248 |
| 4 | Appalachian State University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 36 | $64,084 | +$14,743 | #1,312 |
| 5 | North Carolina State Highway Patrol | State | — | $63,250 | +$13,909 | #1,368 |
| 6 | Huntersville Police Department | Municipal | 92 | $62,647 | +$13,306 | #1,400 |
| 7 | Apex Police Department | Municipal | 104 | $62,524 | +$13,183 | #1,408 |
| 8 | Fuquay-Varina Police Department | Municipal | 70 | $62,291 | +$12,950 | #1,430 |
| 9 | Johnston County Sheriff's Office | County | 124 | $62,213 | +$12,872 | #1,436 |
| 10 | Chapel Hill Police Department | Municipal | 82 | $61,451 | +$12,110 | #1,477 |
| 11 | Raleigh Police Department | Municipal | 713 | $61,417 | +$12,076 | #1,478 |
| 12 | Duke University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 57 | $60,195 | +$10,854 | #1,551 |
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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