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Oxford 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.
Oxford Police Department starts at $52,531 a year — about $25.26 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $14,154 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $15,609 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Mississippi run about 13% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $60,413 would somewhere at average prices — $7,882 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 56 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 isOxford Police Department reported 106 sworn officers and 23 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 3.9 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 27,137.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 Oxford
The Oxford Police Department polices Oxford, the seat of Lafayette County and home of the University of Mississippi, with 91 sworn officers and more than 114 staff in total working around the clock from headquarters at 9 Industrial Park Drive. It holds Mississippi State Accreditation through the Mississippi Law Enforcement Accreditation Commission. Specialist assignments run to more than twenty units, among them SWAT, K-9, school resource officers, DUI enforcement, the Metro Narcotics Task Force, mounted patrol, crisis negotiations, a downtown unit, criminal investigations, a fusion center, a drone unit, honour guard, community outreach and parking and code enforcement.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 September 2026. City of Oxford, Oxford Police Department page — Hiring & Recruitment — open the source document
Read 8 September 2026 from the City's own police department page, which states starting pay of approximately $52,531 for new officers against up to $64,871 for experienced hires. The department says plainly that it seeks applicants 'certified or not', so the figure is the entry rate and not a lateral one; the experienced figure is the separate hiring range for certified officers and is excluded. The City words the figure as approximate, which is how it is published. This is the first Mississippi row to come off a municipal page rather than an aggregator: salary-shaped searches in this state return ZipRecruiter, Indeed and Salary.com almost exclusively, and the page was found by searching the city's own host.
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 Oxford 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. Oxford starts at $52,531, so $15,609 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Oxford Police Department officer make?
Oxford Police Department starts a new officer on $52,531 a year, about $25.26 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 Oxford, Oxford Police Department page — Hiring & Recruitment.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Mississippi?
It ranks #6 of 12 agencies we have verified in Mississippi — 6 pay less, 5 pay more in the state — and #1,967 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $14,154 below, and against other municipal agencies $15,609 below.
Compare with another department
Put Oxford 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 MS
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Oxford | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DeSoto County Sheriff's Office | County | 185 | $65,564 | +$13,033 | #1,216 |
| 2 | Southaven Police Department | Municipal | 150 | $61,982 | +$9,451 | #1,451 |
| 3 | Hattiesburg Police Department | Municipal | 92 | $55,000 | +$2,469 | #1,853 |
| 4 | Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol | State | 397 | $54,000 | +$1,469 | #1,910 |
| 5 | Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics | State | — | $54,000 | +$1,469 | #1,911 |
| 7 | Gulfport Police Department | Municipal | 134 | $51,241 | −$1,290 | #2,024 |
| 8 | Mississippi Department of Revenue - Alcoholic Beverage Control Bureau of Enforcement | State | — | $50,000 | −$2,531 | #2,077 |
| 9 | Biloxi Police Department | Municipal | 122 | $48,300 | −$4,231 | #2,136 |
| 10 | Mississippi Capitol Police | State | — | $46,700 | −$5,831 | #2,175 |
| 11 | Ocean Springs Police Department | Municipal | 39 | $45,474 | −$7,057 | #2,196 |
| 12 | Mississippi Department of Marine Resources - Marine Patrol | State | — | $45,000 | −$7,531 | #2,208 |
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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