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Oakdale 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.
Oakdale Police Department starts at $93,538 a year — about $44.97 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $26,853 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $25,398 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Minnesota run about 1% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $94,846 would somewhere at average prices — $1,308 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 91, where goods are 101. 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 isOakdale Police Department reported 39 sworn officers and 6 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.3 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 31,027.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 Oakdale says about itself
The Oakdale Police Department is committed to providing our community high-quality police services with honour, integrity, and professionalism. The department provides the core services of crime prevention, proactive patrol, criminal investigation, emergency response, community engagement, animal control and traffic enforcement, and strives to work in partnership with the community to prevent, reduce and deter crime. Procedural justice is the guiding principle for all staff: treat all with dignity and respect, listen to others, make fair decisions, and always be able to explain our actions to our community.
What Oakdale does
Oakdale Police Department polices a Washington County city east of Saint Paul with 39 licensed officers, having grown from a single officer hired in 1968 and a force of four in 1969. Its patrol division of 30 — 24 officers and six sergeants — works 11.5-hour shifts across day, afternoon and overnight watches, and the city is divided into two policing sectors each with its own sector sergeant so that recurring local problems have a named point of contact. Civilian staff cover records, data release, gun permits and community engagement.
Oakdale’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Oakdale calls it a wellness concept schedule: an 11-hour shift on a 5/5, 2/2 pattern, with every other weekend off.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
A 5/5, 2/2 pattern on 11-hour shifts does not repeat weekly, so your days off land somewhere new each fortnight. BlueShifts builds the cycle once and fills in every month ahead, and the wellness hours paid in lieu of owed time are the kind of extra the off-duty statistical calculator keeps count of.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Oakdale of — open the source document
Opened 29 June 2026; explicitly includes entry-level applicants; minimum $93,537.60
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 Oakdale 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. Oakdale starts at $93,538, so $25,398 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Oakdale Police Department officer make?
Oakdale Police Department starts a new officer on $93,538 a year, about $44.97 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 Oakdale of.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Minnesota?
It ranks #5 of 102 agencies we have verified in Minnesota — 97 pay less, 4 pay more in the state — and #203 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $26,853 above, and against other municipal agencies $25,398 above.
What shifts do Oakdale Police Department officers work?
Oakdale calls it a wellness concept schedule: an 11-hour shift on a 5/5, 2/2 pattern, with every other weekend off. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Oakdale 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 MN
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Oakdale | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Blaine Police Department | Municipal | 80 | $101,733 | +$8,195 | #111 |
| 2 | Stillwater Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $94,328 | +$790 | #193 |
| 3 | Columbia Heights Police Department | Municipal | 29 | $93,725 | +$187 | #198 |
| 4 | Carver County Sheriff's Office | County | 77 | $93,683 | +$146 | #200 |
| 6 | Richfield Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $93,226 | −$312 | #205 |
| 7 | Maplewood Police Department | Municipal | 56 | $93,038 | −$499 | #209 |
| 8 | Forest Lake Police Department | Municipal | 20 | $92,789 | −$749 | #212 |
| 9 | Apple Valley Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $92,768 | −$770 | #213 |
| 10 | Coon Rapids Police Department | Municipal | 73 | $92,123 | −$1,414 | #226 |
| 11 | Saint Paul Police Department | Municipal | 562 | $91,291 | −$2,246 | #237 |
| 12 | Woodbury Police Department | Municipal | 80 | $91,187 | −$2,350 | #239 |
| 13 | Sherburne County Sheriff's Office | County | 89 | $90,834 | −$2,704 | #250 |
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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