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Odessa 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.
Odessa Police Department starts at $77,355 a year — about $37.19 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,670 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $9,215 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Texas run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $79,701 would somewhere at average prices — $2,346 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 88, where goods are 98. 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 isOdessa Police Department reported 128 sworn officers and 40 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.1 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 121,009.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 Odessa says about itself
The officers of the Odessa Police Department aspire to provide the highest quality police services to the citizens of Odessa to ensure a safe, peaceful and productive community. We are dedicated to maintaining the highest standards of professional ethics and integrity so that we may enforce the ordinances of the City of Odessa, the laws of the State of Texas, and the United States of America fairly and equitably to all. The department's values are operational excellence, dedication and innovation, ethics and integrity, service and respect, a safe and secure community, and accountability and responsibility.
What Odessa does
Odessa Police Department began in 1936 with a single officer and now runs Field Operations and Special Operations bureaus in West Texas, its patrol division answering around 112,000 calls a year. It has licensed its own academy since 2010, opened an 8,000 square-foot training building beside the main station in 2021, and keeps a 303-acre range used by its SWAT, K-9, drone and crisis negotiation teams and by outside agencies
Shifts at Odessa
Patrol Officers bid for 1-year assignment to either day, evening, or night shifts. Each group follows a set 10-hour schedule, including regular training every other Tuesday.
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
A shift you bid for and hold for a year, with a training day every other Tuesday sitting inside it. BlueShifts holds the pattern and the training weeks so nothing gets missed.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 20 August 2026. Odessa Police Department — Salary and Benefits, department step table (P28 Police Officer, Step 1 Beginning) — open the source document
Odessa Police Department's own Salary and Benefits page, published under the Odessa Police Academy section of the city site, which prints the department's step table: pay grade P28 Police Officer, Step 1, Beginning, $37.1900 an hour = $77,355 a year, rising through eight steps to $108,070 after sixteen years. The department runs a separate P26 Police Recruit class on a single flat rate of $67,579 ($32.4900 an hour) with no steps, which is the pre-license class paid through the Odessa Police Academy and is excluded here in line with every other agency on the site. No prior service is required, and this is not a lateral rate: Step 1 is headed Beginning, the department hires recruits into its own academy from the Police Recruit eligibility list, and the step ladder prices experience separately from Step 2 onwards.
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 Odessa 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. Odessa starts at $77,355, so $9,215 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Odessa Police Department officer make?
Odessa Police Department starts a new officer on $77,355 a year, about $37.19 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 Odessa Police Department — Salary and Benefits, department step table (P28 Police Officer, Step 1 Beginning).
Is that good pay for a police officer in Texas?
It ranks #51 of 151 agencies we have verified in Texas — 100 pay less, 50 pay more in the state — and #577 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,670 above, and against other municipal agencies $9,215 above.
What shifts do Odessa Police Department officers work?
Patrol Officers bid for 1-year assignment to either day, evening, or night shifts. Each group follows a set 10-hour schedule, including regular training every other Tuesday. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Odessa 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 TX
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Odessa | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allen Police Department | Municipal | 153 | $91,106 | +$13,751 | #241 |
| 2 | Frisco Police Department | Municipal | 270 | $90,750 | +$13,395 | #252 |
| 3 | Plano Police Department | Municipal | 400 | $90,729 | +$13,374 | #253 |
| 4 | Grand Prairie Police Department | Municipal | 287 | $90,000 | +$12,645 | #270 |
| 5 | Hurst Police Department | Municipal | 61 | $87,048 | +$9,693 | #322 |
| 6 | Lewisville Police Department | Municipal | 181 | $86,268 | +$8,913 | #335 |
| 7 | Coppell Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $84,968 | +$7,613 | #355 |
| 8 | Rockwall Police Department | Municipal | 95 | $84,448 | +$7,093 | #362 |
| 9 | Farmers Branch Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $84,440 | +$7,085 | #363 |
| 10 | The Colony Police Department | Municipal | 86 | $84,082 | +$6,727 | #371 |
| 11 | Baytown Police Department | Municipal | 172 | $84,049 | +$6,694 | #372 |
| 12 | McKinney Police Department | Municipal | 248 | $83,992 | +$6,637 | #374 |
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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