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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 $78,671 a year — about $37.82 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,281 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $7,407 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Texas run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $81,057 would somewhere at average prices — $2,386 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 88, where goods are 98. 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.
What Pasadena says about itself
Our mission is to lawfully safeguard the lives and liberties of our community.
What Pasadena does
Pasadena Police Department was formed in 1937, when a chief and four officers policed the city with a single car; today around 300 officers and 78 civilians patrol 67 square miles for roughly 153,000 residents from an 80,000 square-foot station, with a fleet in the hundreds and specialist commercial vehicle enforcement, motorcycle, gang intelligence and SWAT units
Where the figure comes from
Checked 20 August 2026. City of Pasadena — Police Salary Chart (Officer scale, Step 1 Entry), corroborated by the City's Police Benefits page — open the source document
City of Pasadena's own Police Salary Chart: the OFFICER column, headed 'OFFICER (Includes Cadets)', begins at Step 1 ENTRY $78,671.25 and runs Step 2 (1 year) $84,701.87, Step 3 (3 years) $88,846.38, Step 4 (5 years) $92,643.45, Step 5 (7 years) $97,060, Step 6 (10 years) $99,989 and Step 7 (12 years) $109,817.10. The city's own Benefits page states the same number a second way, as the starting salary for a basic academy cadet. Because cadets are carried on the officer scale, this one rate covers the Pasadena Police Academy and the whole of the first year. No prior service is required, and this is not a lateral rate: the department trains non-certified hires in its own academy, which is certified for full-time Veterans Administration education benefits, and prices lateral entry separately at a minimum of three years of recognised service ($88,846.38) up to five years ($92,643.45), at the Chief of Police's discretion.
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 $78,671, so $7,384 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 $78,671 a year, about $37.82 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 — Police Salary Chart (Officer scale, Step 1 Entry), corroborated by the City's Police Benefits page.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Texas?
It ranks #34 of 140 agencies we have verified in Texas — 106 pay less, 33 pay more in the state — and #436 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,281 above, and against other municipal agencies $7,407 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 TX
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Pasadena | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Allen Police Department | Municipal | 153 | $91,106 | +$12,435 | #192 |
| 2 | Frisco Police Department | Municipal | 270 | $90,750 | +$12,079 | #200 |
| 3 | Plano Police Department | Municipal | 414 | $90,729 | +$12,058 | #201 |
| 4 | Grand Prairie Police Department | Municipal | 287 | $90,000 | +$11,329 | #216 |
| 5 | Hurst Police Department | Municipal | — | $87,048 | +$8,377 | #264 |
| 6 | Lewisville Police Department | Municipal | 181 | $86,268 | +$7,597 | #276 |
| 7 | Coppell Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $84,968 | +$6,297 | #293 |
| 8 | Rockwall Police Department | Municipal | 95 | $84,448 | +$5,777 | #300 |
| 9 | The Colony Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,082 | +$5,411 | #306 |
| 10 | Baytown Police Department | Municipal | — | $84,049 | +$5,378 | #307 |
| 11 | McKinney Police Department | Municipal | 248 | $83,992 | +$5,321 | #309 |
| 12 | Mesquite Police Department | Municipal | 260 | $83,869 | +$5,197 | #312 |
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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