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Owensboro 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.
Owensboro Police Department starts at $62,254 a year — about $29.93 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $4,431 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $5,886 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Owensboro, KY run about 11% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $70,256 would somewhere at average prices — $8,002 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 56 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. Based on price levels for this metropolitan 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 isOwensboro Police Department reported 101 sworn officers and 37 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.7 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 60,774.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 Owensboro says about itself
The mission of the Owensboro Police Department is to work in a true partnership with our community, to enhance the quality of life in our city, while maintaining order and protecting the people we serve by reducing incidences of crime, doing so with professionalism, honor, and integrity.
What Owensboro does
The Owensboro Police Department provides law enforcement for the City and its residents using generally accepted police practices. Police Officers patrol assigned areas on foot or in police vehicles, control traffic, prevent crime and disturbances of the peace, arrest violators and may serve in other departmental units while delivering safe, efficient and public-oriented City services
Where the figure comes from
Checked 6 September 2026. City of Owensboro official 2026 — open the source document
Opened 8 June 2026 on the City's own careers portal; official starting salary $29.93/hour = $62,253.98 a year. Re-read 6 September 2026 and confirmed against the City's own Police Officer information sheet of March 2026, which puts the base hourly rate at $29.0581 and annualises it over 2,080 hours as approximately $60,440 - so the City has published $60,440 in March 2026 and $62,253.98 in June 2026, and both are in the pay history. The information sheet confirms the entry route: applicants without an associate's degree may apply, with a college programme offered to academy attendees that satisfies the education requirement, and the alternatives include two years' military service or two years in the department's own central dispatch, so no certification or prior sworn service is required. Officers work 8-hour days on a 40-hour week with an 18-month probation. The $4,429 a year state training incentive, lateral sign-on bonus and retention bonuses are excluded RE-WORKED 13 SEPTEMBER 2026. FIGURE STANDS AND THE ARITHMETIC CHECKS: $29.93 an hour over 2,080 hours is $62,254.40, which is the stored $62,253.98 to the cent at the posting's own precision. TWO THINGS FOUND THAT CHANGE HOW THIS ROW SHOULD BE RECHECKED. (1) THE DEPARTMENT IS NOT CURRENTLY HIRING ENTRY-LEVEL OFFICERS AT ALL. Its own Becoming a Police Officer page states that OPD 'is not accepting applications for the position of police officer at this time' and is accepting applications only for Police Officer - Lateral Transfer, at $58,354 to $78,955 by years of service with a sign-on bonus up to $25,000. So the entry figure will not move until a new entry posting opens, and a recheck that finds no entry posting has found the current state rather than a gap. (2) THE DEPARTMENT'S OWN PAGE IS STALER THAN THE CITY'S POSTING, WHICH IS THE REVERSE OF THE USUAL ASSUMPTION. That same page advertises 'Competitive Salary based on years of service (currently ranging between: 3 years experience $53,476 to 10 years experience $59,148)' - a ten-year figure BELOW the entry rate the City published in June 2026, so it cannot be current. The standing rule that the agency's own page beats a survey return holds against SURVEYS; it does not mean an agency page beats the same employer's own dated posting. Excluded from the figure as before: the $4,300 a year Kentucky state training incentive, structured retention bonuses at 3, 6, 9 and 12 years ($2,000/$3,000/$5,000/$6,000), the $700 yearly clothing allowance and the take-home fleet vehicle.
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 Owensboro 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. Owensboro starts at $62,254, so $5,886 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Owensboro Police Department officer make?
Owensboro Police Department starts a new officer on $62,254 a year, about $29.93 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 Owensboro official 2026.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Kentucky?
It ranks #8 of 15 agencies we have verified in Kentucky — 7 pay less, 7 pay more in the state — and #1,432 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $4,431 below, and against other municipal agencies $5,886 below.
Compare with another department
Put Owensboro 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 KY
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Owensboro | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kentucky State Police | State | 1,078 | $71,000 | +$8,746 | #877 |
| 2 | Louisville Metro Police Department | Municipal | 1,013 | $66,760 | +$4,506 | #1,138 |
| 3 | Paducah Police Department | Municipal | 68 | $65,146 | +$2,892 | #1,246 |
| 4 | Lexington Police Department | Municipal | 541 | $64,424 | +$2,170 | #1,293 |
| 5 | Richmond Police Department | Municipal | 65 | $63,988 | +$1,734 | #1,320 |
| 6 | Bowling Green Police Department | Municipal | 140 | $63,839 | +$1,585 | #1,329 |
| 7 | University of Kentucky Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 76 | $63,200 | +$946 | #1,371 |
| 9 | Kenton County Police Department | Municipal | 41 | $57,699 | −$4,555 | #1,715 |
| 10 | Elizabethtown Police Department | Municipal | 77 | $57,200 | −$5,054 | #1,745 |
| 11 | Georgetown Police Department | Municipal | 75 | $55,345 | −$6,909 | #1,830 |
| 12 | Henderson Police Department | Municipal | 58 | $51,778 | −$10,476 | #2,001 |
| 13 | Hopkinsville Police Department | Municipal | 72 | $51,239 | −$11,015 | #2,025 |
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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