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Olathe 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.
Olathe Police Department starts at $65,050 a year — about $31.27 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $3,340 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $6,214 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Kansas run about 10% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $72,223 would somewhere at average prices — $7,173 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 71 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isOlathe Police Department reported 210 sworn officers and 23 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.4 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 150,965.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 Olathe
Olathe Police Department serves a Johnson County city in the Kansas City metropolitan area, with patrol as its core operational function covering the streets 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Every officer, including laterals from other agencies, enters through the patrol division and must serve two to three years there before applying for specialty assignments such as investigations. The patrol division works a 4/10 schedule — four ten-hour days in a row followed by three days off — with a shift differential of a dollar an hour on evenings and a dollar fifty on midnights, and a $3,000 annual stipend for officers who qualify as Spanish or American Sign Language interpreters.
Olathe’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Olathe's patrol division works a 4/10 schedule: four ten-hour days in a row, followed by three days off.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
WorkingOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
Olathe publishes the days on and off but not which are days and which are nights. In BlueShifts you choose that yourself — every shift can be a day, a night or a 24-hour tour, and the calendar marks it with a sun, a moon or a clock.
A seven-day cycle keeps your days off on the same weekdays, but the shift differentials mean what you earn depends on which watch you are on. BlueShifts builds the pattern and marks days and nights separately, so the year is easy to read.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. 2026 Percent Based Pay Plan - Olathe Police Department — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 January 2026.
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.
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.
How this level compares
Where Olathe 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. Olathe starts at $65,050, so $6,237 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Olathe Police Department officer make?
Olathe Police Department starts a new officer on $65,050 a year, about $31.27 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 2026 Percent Based Pay Plan - Olathe Police Department.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Kansas?
It ranks #4 of 13 agencies we have verified in Kansas — 9 pay less, 3 pay more in the state — and #1,018 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $3,340 below, and against other municipal agencies $6,214 below.
What shifts do Olathe Police Department officers work?
Olathe's patrol division works a 4/10 schedule: four ten-hour days in a row, followed by three days off. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Olathe 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 KS
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Olathe | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wichita Police Department | Municipal | 663 | $70,970 | +$5,920 | #724 |
| 2 | Kansas Highway Patrol | State | 467 | $68,182 | +$3,132 | #851 |
| 3 | Lenexa Police Department | Municipal | 93 | $66,013 | +$963 | #965 |
| 5 | University of Kansas Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 28 | $60,180 | −$4,870 | #1,229 |
| 6 | Saline County Sheriff's Office | County | 41 | $57,866 | −$7,184 | #1,333 |
| 7 | Salina Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $57,741 | −$7,309 | #1,343 |
| 8 | Garden City Police Department | Municipal | 61 | $56,451 | −$8,599 | #1,385 |
| 9 | Junction City Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $53,747 | −$11,303 | #1,480 |
| 10 | Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks — Law Enforcement Division | State | — | $53,414 | −$11,636 | #1,488 |
| 11 | Wichita State University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 28 | $49,254 | −$15,796 | #1,583 |
| 12 | Arkansas City Police Department | Municipal | 23 | $44,491 | −$20,559 | #1,636 |
| 13 | Kansas State University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | — | $42,494 | −$22,556 | #1,647 |
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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