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New York City 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 York City Police Department starts at $55,942 a year — about $26.90 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,743 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $12,198 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in New York run about 8% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $51,836 somewhere at average prices — $4,106 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 134 against a national average of 100, where goods are 107. 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 New York City says about itself
The mission of the New York City Police Department is to enhance the quality of life in New York City by working in partnership with the community to enforce the law, preserve peace, protect the people, reduce fear, and maintain order.
What New York City does
NYPD Police Officers perform municipal law-enforcement duties for New York City, including patrol, enforcement and public-safety functions. The current City examination recruits directly into the Police Officer title.
Shifts at New York City
The City's own announcement of the PBA agreement - retroactive to 1 August 2017 and running to 31 July 2025 - introduced a pilot to put officers on TEN AND TWELVE HOUR TOURS in place of the eight-hour tour, starting in two Bronx precincts, one transit district and one housing police service area and running six months before any wider expansion. The City states that officers on the pilot work THE SAME NUMBER OF HOURS EACH YEAR, 2,088, at no additional cost - longer tours bought with fewer appearances. The Department confirmed the pilot in its own Legal Bureau response to the Inspector General, describing it as a programme offering ten-hour and twelve-hour tours to see which schedule helps officers keep a better work-life balance and reduce fatigue. The Department's own Administrative Guide fixes the unit of time: tours are counted in a TWENTY-EIGHT DAY FLSA CYCLE, and an officer below the rank of captain assigned to a precinct, transit district or police service area may voluntarily exchange a tour with another member of the same rank - a "mutual" - provided the exchanged tour falls inside the same 28-day cycle and generates no overtime. Two tours may not be worked back to back: a third platoon followed by a first platoon is not permitted. The Administrative Guide also shows how the roster is built: officers are assigned to SQUADS, each squad works a duty CHART, and vacation is selected by seniority AND BY SQUAD ASSIGNMENT, with a transferred officer keeping their picks subject to "minor adjustments to reflect new chart assignments". No more than 12 per cent of a precinct's officers may be on vacation at once, and regular days off falling immediately before, within or after a vacation are part of that vacation. On the length of a set: "Uniformed members of the service whose regular tour consists of four consecutive workdays will work only four vacation days during the vacation work period" - so a set of four consecutive workdays is a regular chart in this Department's own words.
The whole point of a longer tour is fewer appearances for the same 2,088 hours, and the only way to see whether that trade is working is to have the year in front of you. BlueShifts holds tours of different lengths on the same calendar, counts the hours as they are worked, and keeps the court time that lands on top of a twelve separate from the tour itself. And a mutual only works if both officers can see the same 28-day cycle - which is exactly what a shared calendar is for. Vacation picked by squad, RDOs swallowed into the vacation either side of it, and a twelve per cent cap on who can be off at once: the pick is worth planning, and that is a calendar job, not a memory job.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. New York City DCAS current Police Officer Notice of Examination — open the source document
Their source is effective 14 January 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 New York City 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 York City starts at $55,942, so $12,198 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a New York City Police Department officer make?
New York City Police Department starts a new officer on $55,942 a year, about $26.90 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 New York City DCAS current Police Officer Notice of Examination.
Is that good pay for a police officer in New York?
It ranks #22 of 27 agencies we have verified in New York — 5 pay less, 21 pay more in the state — and #1,798 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,743 below, and against other municipal agencies $12,198 below.
What shifts do New York City Police Department officers work?
The City's own announcement of the PBA agreement - retroactive to 1 August 2017 and running to 31 July 2025 - introduced a pilot to put officers on TEN AND TWELVE HOUR TOURS in place of the eight-hour tour, starting in two Bronx precincts, one transit district and one housing police service area and running six months before any wider expansion. The City states that officers on the pilot work THE SAME NUMBER OF HOURS EACH YEAR, 2,088, at no additional cost - longer tours bought with fewer appearances. The Department confirmed the pilot in its own Legal Bureau response to the Inspector General, describing it as a programme offering ten-hour and twelve-hour tours to see which schedule helps officers keep a better work-life balance and reduce fatigue. The Department's own Administrative Guide fixes the unit of time: tours are counted in a TWENTY-EIGHT DAY FLSA CYCLE, and an officer below the rank of captain assigned to a precinct, transit district or police service area may voluntarily exchange a tour with another member of the same rank - a "mutual" - provided the exchanged tour falls inside the same 28-day cycle and generates no overtime. Two tours may not be worked back to back: a third platoon followed by a first platoon is not permitted. The Administrative Guide also shows how the roster is built: officers are assigned to SQUADS, each squad works a duty CHART, and vacation is selected by seniority AND BY SQUAD ASSIGNMENT, with a transferred officer keeping their picks subject to "minor adjustments to reflect new chart assignments". No more than 12 per cent of a precinct's officers may be on vacation at once, and regular days off falling immediately before, within or after a vacation are part of that vacation. On the length of a set: "Uniformed members of the service whose regular tour consists of four consecutive workdays will work only four vacation days during the vacation work period" - so a set of four consecutive workdays is a regular chart in this Department's own words. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put New York City 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 NY
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs New | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York State Department of Financial Services — Investigations | State | — | $86,681 | +$30,739 | #328 |
| 2 | New York State Police | State | 5,373 | $82,608 | +$26,666 | #415 |
| 3 | New York State Park Police | State | 269 | $73,796 | +$17,854 | #726 |
| 4 | Onondaga County Sheriff's Office | County | 217 | $71,764 | +$15,822 | #830 |
| 5 | Yonkers Police Department | Municipal | 625 | $70,229 | +$14,287 | #923 |
| 6 | Erie County Sheriff's Office | County | 175 | $69,274 | +$13,332 | #974 |
| 7 | Livingston County Sheriff's Office | County | 66 | $67,808 | +$11,866 | #1,067 |
| 8 | New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers | State | — | $67,796 | +$11,854 | #1,068 |
| 9 | Yates County Sheriff's Office | County | 27 | $66,389 | +$10,447 | #1,170 |
| 10 | Hempstead Village Police Department | Municipal | 128 | $65,254 | +$9,312 | #1,240 |
| 11 | Albany Police Department | Municipal | 269 | $65,066 | +$9,124 | #1,252 |
| 12 | Clarkstown Police Department | Municipal | — | $64,783 | +$8,841 | #1,276 |
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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