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Ocean View 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.
Ocean View Police Department starts at $72,000 a year — about $34.62 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $5,315 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $3,860 above the median for municipal agencies.
How big the department isOcean View Police Department reported 14 sworn officers and 1 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 4.5 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 3,120.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 Ocean View says about itself
The Ocean View Police Department is committed to working in partnership with the Community, to improve the quality of life in the Town of Ocean View.
What Ocean View does
The Ocean View Police Department is the municipal force for the Town of Ocean View in Sussex County on the Delaware coast, working from 201 Central Avenue.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 26 September 2026. Town of Ocean View, FY2027 Operating Budget and Capital Improvement Program, adopted 14 April 2026: "Includes a new starting salary for OVPD of $72,000 from $68,000 for sworn police officers". — open the source document
The Town's adopted budget for fiscal 2027 (1 May 2026 to 30 April 2027) sets the starting salary for a sworn officer at $72,000, up from $68,000, used as printed; the Town's November 2025 compensation study confirms the earlier $68,000. The same budget moves officers onto a pay scale with 1.5% annual steps and a 1.5% cost-of-living rise. No seasonal or lateral rate is involved.
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 Ocean View 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. Ocean View starts at $72,000, so $3,860 above the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Ocean View Police Department officer make?
Ocean View Police Department starts a new officer on $72,000 a year, about $34.62 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 Town of Ocean View, FY2027 Operating Budget and Capital Improvement Program, adopted 14 April 2026: "Includes a new starting salary for OVPD of $72,000 from $68,000 for sworn police officers"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Delaware?
It ranks #9 of 18 agencies we have verified in Delaware — 9 pay less, 8 pay more in the state — and #816 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $5,315 above, and against other municipal agencies $3,860 above.
Compare with another department
Put Ocean View 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 DE
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Ocean | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Delaware State Police | State | 783 | $91,265 | +$19,265 | #238 |
| 2 | New Castle City Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,338 | +$3,338 | #660 |
| 3 | University of Delaware Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 48 | $74,679 | +$2,679 | #690 |
| 4 | Middletown Police Department | Municipal | 38 | $74,550 | +$2,550 | #696 |
| 5 | New Castle County Police | County | 414 | $74,453 | +$2,453 | #702 |
| 6 | Georgetown Police Department | Municipal | 21 | $74,000 | +$2,000 | #719 |
| 7 | Millsboro Police Department | Municipal | 17 | $73,560 | +$1,560 | #733 |
| 8 | Dover Police Department | Municipal | 101 | $72,000 | same | #814 |
| 10 | Newark Police Department | Municipal | 72 | $70,000 | −$2,000 | #936 |
| 11 | Selbyville Police Department | Municipal | 10 | $68,788 | −$3,212 | #1,005 |
| 12 | Seaford Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $68,474 | −$3,526 | #1,021 |
| 13 | Milford Police Department | Municipal | 35 | $67,971 | −$4,029 | #1,059 |
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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