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Pasadena 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.
Pasadena Police Department starts at $106,813 a year — about $51.35 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $38,423 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $35,549 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA run about 14% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $94,054 somewhere at average prices — $12,759 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 170 against a national average of 100, where goods are 107. 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 isPasadena Police Department reported 218 sworn officers and 121 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 136,663.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 Pasadena says about itself
The Pasadena Police Department is dedicated to excellence as a world class public safety agency. We are committed to establishing an environment in which members of the department and community thrive.
What Pasadena does
Pasadena Police Department was founded in 1886 and polices some 23 square miles of Los Angeles County from a headquarters on North Garfield Avenue, a block from City Hall. It works to a Community Service Area Policing model, with every division focused on emergency response, quality of life and crime reduction in the city's neighbourhoods and business districts, and outreach to young people. Its resources include the patrol section, an air operations section, K-9 officers, a Homeless Outreach and Psychiatric Evaluation team, park safety officers, a safe schools team and an anti-crime team. Since 2004 it has also provided police services to the Pasadena Unified School District, after that district's own force was disbanded.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Pasadena official Polic — open the source document
Opened 8 January 2026; requires completed POST Basic Academy; minimum $106,813.41
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 Pasadena 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. Pasadena starts at $106,813, so $35,526 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Pasadena Police Department officer make?
Pasadena Police Department starts a new officer on $106,813 a year, about $51.35 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 Pasadena official Polic.
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #61 of 222 agencies we have verified in California — 161 pay less, 60 pay more in the state — and #64 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $38,423 above, and against other municipal agencies $35,549 above.
Compare with another department
Put Pasadena 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 CA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Pasadena | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$56,806 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$42,630 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$41,129 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$37,190 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$36,283 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$34,211 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$32,926 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$32,151 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$31,447 | #9 |
| 10 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$25,450 | #10 |
| 11 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$25,223 | #11 |
| 12 | Campbell Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $131,747 | +$24,934 | #12 |
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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