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Pagosa Springs 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.
Pagosa Springs Police Department starts at $58,952 a year — about $28.34 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $9,438 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $12,312 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Colorado run about 3% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $57,206 somewhere at average prices — $1,746 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 127 against a national average of 100, where goods are 99. 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 isPagosa Springs Police Department reported 7 sworn officers and 3 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 3.8 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 1,839.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 Pagosa Springs says about itself
The mission of the Pagosa Springs Police Department shall be to promote a partnership between the community, businesses, government, and law enforcement designed to reduce crime and improve the overall quality of life.
What Pagosa Springs does
Pagosa Springs Police Officer Recruits perform working-level technical law-enforcement duties involving enforcement of city, state and federal laws, maintaining the peace, protecting citizens, investigating criminal activity, gathering evidence, making arrests, enforcing traffic laws and serving legal process
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Town of Pagosa Springs official 2026 Polic — open the source document
Opened 28 January 2026; continuous; official minimum $58,952 annually. The Town provides full academy sponsorship for entry recruits. Higher range placement and add-ons are excluded
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 Pagosa Springs 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. Pagosa Springs starts at $58,952, so $12,335 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Pagosa Springs Police Department officer make?
Pagosa Springs Police Department starts a new officer on $58,952 a year, about $28.34 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 Town of Pagosa Springs official 2026 Polic.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Colorado?
It ranks #35 of 35 agencies we have verified in Colorado — 0 pay less, 34 pay more in the state — and #1,286 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $9,438 below, and against other municipal agencies $12,312 below.
Compare with another department
Put Pagosa Springs 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 CO
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Pagosa | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colorado State Patrol | State | 706 | $91,620 | +$32,668 | #184 |
| 2 | Parker Police Department | Municipal | 89 | $89,898 | +$30,946 | #217 |
| 3 | Johnstown Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $86,944 | +$27,992 | #266 |
| 4 | Broomfield Police Department | Municipal | 135 | $86,029 | +$27,077 | #278 |
| 5 | Golden Police Department | Municipal | 53 | $85,321 | +$26,369 | #287 |
| 6 | Lakewood Police Department | Municipal | 274 | $85,093 | +$26,141 | #291 |
| 7 | Breckenridge Police Department | Municipal | 25 | $83,990 | +$25,038 | #310 |
| 8 | Thornton Police Department | Municipal | 243 | $82,992 | +$24,040 | #332 |
| 9 | Commerce City Police Department | Municipal | 109 | $82,327 | +$23,375 | #341 |
| 10 | Larimer County Sheriff's Office | County | 228 | $81,765 | +$22,813 | #353 |
| 11 | Westminster Police Department | Municipal | 187 | $80,746 | +$21,794 | #387 |
| 12 | Boulder County Sheriff's Office | County | 106 | $80,496 | +$21,544 | #395 |
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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