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Novato 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.
Novato Police Department starts at $91,308 a year — about $43.90 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $22,918 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $20,044 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $82,468 somewhere at average prices — $8,841 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 159 against a national average of 100, where goods are 106. 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 isNovato Police Department reported 55 sworn officers and 19 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.1 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 52,105.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.
About Novato
Novato Police Department covers 28 square miles of Marin County north of San Francisco for a city of more than 55,000, with around 80 staff including 60 sworn officers and a volunteer programme. It runs two divisions, operations and administrative services, each under a captain. Its patrol bureau works the city round the clock across four beat areas and assists the Marin County Sheriff's Office and CHP in and around the city limits, while the investigations section handles sexual assault, child abuse, gang and financial crime, keeps the city's sex, drug, arson and gang registrations, and vets massage, solicitation, firearms dealer and concealed carry applications. The department also runs its own 911 dispatch center.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Novato official Police Off — open the source document
Current official academy-graduate recruitment; minimum $91,308.48
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 Novato 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. Novato starts at $91,308, so $20,021 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Novato Police Department officer make?
Novato Police Department starts a new officer on $91,308 a year, about $43.90 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 City of Novato official Police Off.
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #136 of 222 agencies we have verified in California — 86 pay less, 135 pay more in the state — and #187 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $22,918 above, and against other municipal agencies $20,044 above.
Compare with another department
Put Novato 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 CA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Novato | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$72,311 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$58,135 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$56,634 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$52,695 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$51,788 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$49,716 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$48,431 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$47,656 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$46,952 | #9 |
| 10 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$40,955 | #10 |
| 11 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$40,728 | #11 |
| 12 | Campbell Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $131,747 | +$40,439 | #12 |
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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