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Portland Police Bureau 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.
Portland Police Bureau starts at $84,000 a year — about $40.38 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $15,610 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $12,736 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA run about 5% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $79,681 somewhere at average prices — $4,319 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 125 against a national average of 100, where goods are 105. 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.
What Portland says about itself
The mission of the Portland Police Bureau is to reduce crime and the fear of crime. We work with all community members to preserve life, maintain human rights, protect property and promote individual responsibility and community commitment.
What Portland does
Portland says its Community Police Officers work with the city's diverse communities to preserve life, maintain human rights, protect property, enforce laws, respond to public-safety needs, and promote community commitment. The official recruitment emphasizes community service, constitutional policing, professional development, and working effectively with people of varied backgrounds
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Portland official Community Police Officer 2026 — open the source document
Official 2026 continuous City recruitment lists $84,000-$120,000 and explicitly states Entry Police Officers start at the entry rate. Hiring incentives and pay incentives are separately identified and 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.
How this level compares
Where Portland 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. Portland starts at $84,000, so $12,713 above the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Portland Police Bureau officer make?
Portland Police Bureau starts a new officer on $84,000 a year, about $40.38 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 Portland official Community Police Officer 2026.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Oregon?
It ranks #5 of 46 agencies we have verified in Oregon — 41 pay less, 4 pay more in the state — and #308 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $15,610 above, and against other municipal agencies $12,736 above.
Compare with another department
Put Portland Police Bureau 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 OR
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Portland | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tigard Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $86,596 | +$2,596 | #271 |
| 2 | Bend Police Department | Municipal | 107 | $86,432 | +$2,432 | #273 |
| 3 | Washington County Sheriff's Office | County | 219 | $85,738 | +$1,738 | #280 |
| 4 | Gresham Police Department | Municipal | 123 | $84,968 | +$968 | #292 |
| 6 | Hillsboro Police Department | Municipal | 144 | $83,988 | −$12 | #311 |
| 7 | Corvallis Police Department | Municipal | 67 | $82,747 | −$1,253 | #337 |
| 8 | Lane County Sheriff's Office | County | 75 | $82,181 | −$1,819 | #344 |
| 9 | Multnomah County Sheriff's Office | County | 132 | $82,035 | −$1,965 | #348 |
| 10 | Tualatin Police Department | Municipal | 38 | $81,973 | −$2,027 | #349 |
| 11 | Oregon City Police Department | Municipal | 38 | $81,564 | −$2,436 | #359 |
| 12 | Salem Police Department | Municipal | 185 | $81,349 | −$2,651 | #366 |
| 13 | Canby Police Department | Municipal | 28 | $80,883 | −$3,117 | #384 |
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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