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Opelika 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.
Opelika Police Department starts at $58,217 a year — about $27.99 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $8,468 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $9,923 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Alabama run about 11% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $65,542 would somewhere at average prices — $7,326 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 62 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isOpelika Police Department reported 103 sworn officers and 33 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.9 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 36,066.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 Opelika says about itself
The Opelika Police Department is a progressive department dedicated to policing in the 21st century.
What Opelika does
The Opelika Police Department serves the city of Opelika, Alabama, in Lee County east of Auburn, with a force of ninety to a hundred sworn officers and about a hundred and twenty employees in all. It pays a new officer full salary from the day of hire and through the police academy, and prices the steps above that on certified experience rather than on graduation - one year for Police Officer I and three for Police Officer II. The Department describes its Uniform Division as the driving force of the agency.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. City of Opelika, Police Officer Benefits: "Officer in Training: $58,216.67/year (Full salary upon hire and while attending police academy.)" — open the source document
$58,216.67 is the City's own annual figure and no arithmetic has been applied to it. THE TITLE SAYS TRAINING AND THE PARENTHESIS SAYS OTHERWISE, AND THE PARENTHESIS DECIDES IT: the City's own wording is "Full salary upon hire and while attending police academy", so this is not a reduced academy stipend that a graduate leaves behind - it is the officer's salary, paid from hire and continuing through the academy unchanged. THE STEPS ABOVE IT ARE EXPERIENCE-GATED, NOT ACADEMY-GATED, WHICH IS WHAT MAKES THIS THE ENTRY FIGURE: the City states "Police Officer I (Certified + 1 year experience): $61,127.50/year" and "Police Officer II (Certified + 3 years experience): $64,183.88/year". Neither is triggered by finishing the Alabama academy - both need a YEAR of certified service or more - so nothing lands on graduation day and the hire rate covers the academy and the first year. This is the same reading applied to Lexington SC, Smyrna GA and Dublin OH, and the opposite of North Myrtle Beach and Berkeley County. Excluded from the figure: the merit raises and cost of living raises the same document names without amounts, and the bonuses. THE FIGURE CARRIES NO EFFECTIVE DATE. NEXT DOCUMENT: the City of Opelika adopted classification and pay plan.
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 Opelika 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. Opelika starts at $58,217, so $9,923 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Opelika Police Department officer make?
Opelika Police Department starts a new officer on $58,217 a year, about $27.99 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 Opelika, Police Officer Benefits: "Officer in Training: $58,216.67/year (Full salary upon hire and while attending police academy.)".
Is that good pay for a police officer in Alabama?
It ranks #6 of 35 agencies we have verified in Alabama — 29 pay less, 5 pay more in the state — and #1,663 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $8,468 below, and against other municipal agencies $9,923 below.
Compare with another department
Put Opelika 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 AL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Opelika | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hoover Police Department | Municipal | 178 | $62,920 | +$4,703 | #1,390 |
| 2 | Madison Police Department | Municipal | 88 | $60,195 | +$1,979 | #1,550 |
| 3 | Birmingham Police Department | Municipal | 755 | $59,862 | +$1,645 | #1,588 |
| 4 | Auburn Police Department | Municipal | 131 | $58,798 | +$581 | #1,642 |
| 5 | Huntsville Police Department | Municipal | 432 | $58,614 | +$398 | #1,649 |
| 7 | Shelby County Sheriff's Office | County | 147 | $57,408 | −$809 | #1,735 |
| 8 | Tuscaloosa Police Department | Municipal | 241 | $57,325 | −$892 | #1,740 |
| 9 | Alabama Highway Patrol | State | — | $56,726 | −$1,490 | #1,763 |
| 10 | Madison County Sheriff's Office | County | 184 | $55,390 | −$2,826 | #1,828 |
| 11 | Montgomery Police Department | Municipal | 259 | $55,168 | −$3,049 | #1,839 |
| 12 | Baldwin County Sheriff's Office | County | 174 | $53,768 | −$4,449 | #1,921 |
| 13 | Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office | County | 112 | $51,888 | −$6,329 | #1,997 |
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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