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Newport News 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.
Newport News Police Department starts at $50,000 a year — about $24.04 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $16,685 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $18,140 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Virginia run about 1% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $49,454 somewhere at average prices — $546 less than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 92, where goods are 100. 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 isNewport News Police Department reported 452 sworn officers and 166 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.5 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 182,798.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 Newport News says about itself
To take a leading role in making Newport News a place where people want to live, work and play. To reduce crime and the fear of crime to enhance public safety and quality of life.
What Newport News does
The Newport News Police Department is the fourth largest municipal police department in Virginia, with an authorized complement of 472 sworn officers and 179 non-sworn personnel. It patrols through three precincts - North, Central and South - each divided into four beats, alongside a special investigations division and a dedicated Community and Youth Outreach Division that runs school resource officers and youth programming. The department is a CALEA TRI-ARC AGENCY, accredited separately for the department as a whole, its training academy and its communications center, and has held accreditation continuously for three decades; its public safety communications center is additionally accredited by the Virginia Office of Emergency Medical Services for emergency medical dispatch. It runs its own basic law enforcement academy, which the department states provides training well beyond the Virginia DCJS minimum, and publishes an annual report each year covering its structure, its community events and its crime statistics.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 27 August 2026. Current starting salary for Police Officer - Recruit, City of Newport News Department of Human Resources recruitment specification. — open the source document
THE CITY'S HR SPECIFICATION STATES IT PLAINLY: 'The current starting salary for this position is $50,000.00 annually.' Police Officer - Recruit is the entry-level trainee classification, reporting to a police training sergeant, and recruits draw a regular paycheck through the academy - the department's phrase is EARN WHILE YOU LEARN, and the academy itself is free to the recruit. THE ACADEMY IS ACCREDITED BY THE VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE SERVICES, WHICH MEANS VETERANS CAN COLLECT GI BILL BENEFITS WHILE TRAINING - the second agency in the roster to publish that, after Virginia Beach, and both in the same state. Certified officers are hired laterally with credited service for prior time. Entry requires being 20 at the written test and 21 at appointment, a written test and physical agility test, US citizenship before appointment, and a valid Virginia license with a zero or positive point balance; OFFICERS ARE REQUIRED TO REFRAIN FROM THE USE OF TOBACCO. The post is designated Essential Personnel, and the specification says so in the terms that matter for a shift worker: a variety of schedules across a 24-hour, seven-day operation including nights, weekends, holidays, and duty during and after natural disasters. Benefits run through the Virginia Retirement System with both a defined benefit and a defined contribution plan. A take-home vehicle programme is open to officers who live in the city and are assigned to uniform patrol.
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 Newport News 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. Newport News starts at $50,000, so $18,140 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Newport News Police Department officer make?
Newport News Police Department starts a new officer on $50,000 a year, about $24.04 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 Current starting salary for Police Officer - Recruit, City of Newport News Department of Human Resources recruitment specification..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Virginia?
It ranks #38 of 42 agencies we have verified in Virginia — 4 pay less, 37 pay more in the state — and #2,079 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $16,685 below, and against other municipal agencies $18,140 below.
Compare with another department
Put Newport News 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 VA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Newport | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arlington County Police Department | County | 299 | $90,012 | +$40,012 | #269 |
| 2 | Falls Church Police Department | Municipal | 32 | $76,400 | +$26,400 | #605 |
| 3 | Alexandria Police Department | Municipal | 264 | $75,000 | +$25,000 | #677 |
| 4 | Fairfax County Police Department | County | 1,390 | $74,035 | +$24,035 | #716 |
| 5 | Prince William County Police Department | County | 656 | $74,000 | +$24,000 | #718 |
| 6 | Loudoun County Sheriff's Office | County | 648 | $70,955 | +$20,955 | #884 |
| 7 | Leesburg Police Department | Municipal | 74 | $68,500 | +$18,500 | #1,017 |
| 8 | Manassas Police Department | Municipal | 99 | $68,453 | +$18,453 | #1,024 |
| 9 | Prince William County Sheriff's Office | County | — | $66,596 | +$16,596 | #1,151 |
| 10 | Henrico County Police Division | County | 628 | $65,959 | +$15,959 | #1,188 |
| 11 | Fairfax County Sheriff's Office | County | 433 | $64,997 | +$14,997 | #1,263 |
| 12 | Fredericksburg Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $64,000 | +$14,000 | #1,319 |
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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