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Pittsburg 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.
Pittsburg Police Department starts at $48,048 a year — about $23.10 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $19,219 below the median of the 2,053 agencies on this list, and $20,738 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Kansas run about 10% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $53,346 would somewhere at average prices — $5,298 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 71 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isPittsburg Police Department reported 45 sworn officers and 30 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 20,525.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 Pittsburg says about itself
The focus of the Pittsburg Police Department is to provide excellent, consistent customer service while fulfilling the traditional law enforcement role of community safety and security.
What Pittsburg does
The Pittsburg Police Department is the municipal agency for Pittsburg, a city of about 21,000 in Crawford County in south-east Kansas, ninety minutes south of the Kansas City metro and home to Pittsburg State University. It runs 51 sworn officers and 27 civilian staff under a chief of police who serves as the department's chief executive officer, with patrol working four ten-hour shifts a week and a two-hour overlap built into the end of each shift for reports, training or the department gym. The department describes itself as a customer-service agency first and a community-policing one by design, treating community involvement as the thing any policing initiative depends on. Officers can move along several career paths - tactical, technology, wellness, community relations, traffic, instructor, data analysis, narcotics, officer development, crisis intervention and investigations - and its specialised groups include the Special Response Team, K-9, DARE, field training, bicycle patrol, honour guard, drone pilot, child forensic interview and peer support.
Pittsburg’s rotation, in BlueShifts
The City's own Police Officer page states that patrol officers work four ten-hour shifts with a set three days off based on seniority, and that overlapping shifts leave a two-hour period at the end of a shift to complete reports, train, or use the workout areas on duty. The posting also requires a willingness to work all rotating shifts - days, afternoons, evenings and midnights - so the TIME of the tour rotates while the days off stay put.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
Set days off make the week look simple until the shift TIME rotates underneath them, which is exactly the case this schedule creates. BlueShifts holds the days and the tour separately, so the four-and-three sits on the month while the day, afternoon, evening or midnight assignment rides on top - and the two paid hours at the end of every shift are the kind of detail worth having on the same screen as the roster.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 1 September 2026. City of Pittsburg Police Officer job page, pay table: "Police Officer 1 (Post Academy) $23.10/hr"; salary header "$21.40-$37.00/hr ($44,512-$76,960/year)" — open the source document
Class: Police Officer 1, the post-academy rate. The City's own posting prints the whole ladder - Police Officer Trainee $21.40/hr, Police Officer 1 (Post Academy) $23.10/hr, and higher ranks eligible at 18 months, five years and ten years - and the post-academy officer rate is the one taken, the same reading applied to Rutland City and Brandon. $23.10 on a 2,080-hour year is $48,048, and the City confirms the multiplier itself: its salary header reads $21.40-$37.00/hr and annualises that same range as $44,512-$76,960, both of which are the hourly figures times 2,080. Trainee class: NO - the trainee rate is the academy step of the same officer class, not a separate civilian grade. Prior sworn service is NOT required: the posting states applicants are accepted with or without prior law enforcement experience, and laterals are handled separately by a $2,500 bonus for Kansas CPOST or equivalent out-of-state certification, which is what proves $23.10 is the non-lateral entry step. Retirement is Kansas Police & Fire with a 22.8 per cent employer contribution; eleven paid holidays, 88 vacation hours a year, uniforms and equipment bought by the department. City's own job page, published and modified 25 August 2026, checked 1 September 2026.
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.
How this level compares
Where Pittsburg 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 | $68,786 | $163,619 | 1372 |
| County | $35,000 | $64,438 | $132,263 | 459 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,400 | $110,916 | 144 |
| 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 $4,700 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,100 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Pittsburg starts at $48,048, so $20,738 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Pittsburg Police Department officer make?
Pittsburg Police Department starts a new officer on $48,048 a year, about $23.10 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 Pittsburg Police Officer job page, pay table: "Police Officer 1 (Post Academy) $23.10/hr"; salary header "$21.40-$37.00/hr ($44,512-$76,960/year)".
Is that good pay for a police officer in Kansas?
It ranks #13 of 15 agencies we have verified in Kansas — 2 pay less, 12 pay more in the state — and #1,922 of 2,053 nationally. Against the national median it is $19,219 below, and against other municipal agencies $20,738 below.
What shifts do Pittsburg Police Department officers work?
The City's own Police Officer page states that patrol officers work four ten-hour shifts with a set three days off based on seniority, and that overlapping shifts leave a two-hour period at the end of a shift to complete reports, train, or use the workout areas on duty. The posting also requires a willingness to work all rotating shifts - days, afternoons, evenings and midnights - so the TIME of the tour rotates while the days off stay put. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Pittsburg 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 KS
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Pittsburg | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wichita Police Department | Municipal | 663 | $70,970 | +$22,922 | #810 |
| 2 | Kansas Highway Patrol | State | 467 | $68,182 | +$20,134 | #959 |
| 3 | Lenexa Police Department | Municipal | 93 | $66,013 | +$17,965 | #1,093 |
| 4 | Topeka Police Department | Municipal | 273 | $65,374 | +$17,326 | #1,135 |
| 5 | Olathe Police Department | Municipal | 210 | $65,050 | +$17,002 | #1,155 |
| 6 | University of Kansas Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 28 | $60,180 | +$12,132 | #1,419 |
| 7 | Saline County Sheriff's Office | County | 41 | $57,866 | +$9,818 | #1,542 |
| 8 | Salina Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $57,741 | +$9,693 | #1,553 |
| 9 | Garden City Police Department | Municipal | 61 | $56,451 | +$8,403 | #1,615 |
| 10 | Junction City Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $53,747 | +$5,699 | #1,736 |
| 11 | Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks — Law Enforcement Division | State | — | $53,414 | +$5,366 | #1,752 |
| 12 | Wichita State University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | 28 | $49,254 | +$1,206 | #1,894 |
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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