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Portsmouth 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.
Portsmouth Police Department starts at $70,060 a year — about $33.68 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $3,376 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $1,920 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in New Hampshire run about 4% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $67,259 somewhere at average prices — $2,801 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 134 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 isPortsmouth Police Department reported 64 sworn officers and 20 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.8 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 23,157.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.
About Portsmouth
The Portsmouth Police Department polices the city of Portsmouth in Rockingham County, on New Hampshire's Seacoast between Portland, Maine and Boston, from City Hall's municipal campus at 1 Junkins Avenue. Unusually for a New Hampshire municipality, the department is directed by an elected Board of Police Commissioners rather than by the City Manager, and the Board is the employer party to its collective bargaining agreements. It is budgeted for 70 full-time police officers and 26 auxiliary officers, and employs 27 non-sworn civilians including dispatchers and clerical staff. The department is organised into three divisions - Patrol, Investigations and Administrative Services - with the Patrol Division holding uniformed field personnel, the Seacoast Emergency Response Team, police K-9, the motorcycle unit, animal control, the court office and the emergency communication center. Sworn officers can apply for assignments including bike patrol, crisis negotiation, detectives, honour guard, narcotics, field training officer, firearms instructor and armourer, defensive tactics instructor, drug recognition expert, crime scene team, street crimes unit and drone team. Its civilian establishment is set out step by step in the same salary schedule as the officers, and includes a social worker, an IT administrator, crime analyst, evidence technicians and animal control.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 September 2026. City of Portsmouth Police Department Patrol Officers Salary Schedule, July 1 2026 - June 30 2027, Appendix I — Step 1 — open the source document
Read 8 September 2026 from the City's own salary schedule, linked as 'Police Department Salary Schedules (07/01/2026-06/30/2027)' on the City of Portsmouth Human Resources Employment Contracts page. Appendix I gives Patrol Step 1 at 70,060.40 a year, 2,694.63 bi-weekly, 33.68 an hour. This is the current fiscal year: it took effect on 1 July 2026. The scale was restructured by the Patrol Memorandum of Agreement effective 1 January 2026 - patrol ran on an eighteen-step schedule through FY26 and now runs on seven steps, which is why Step 1 rises from 63,363.84 to 70,060.40 in a single year. Entry requirements are age 21 at time of hire, the Great Bay Police Exam or the Portsmouth POST test at 70 per cent or better, a physical agility test, oral board, psychological examination, polygraph, medical physical and an extensive background investigation, under directive from the New Hampshire Police Standards and Training Council. No prior certification is required and the department runs a separate certified route, so Step 1 is the uncertified entry rate. Ranking Officer and Civilian schedules are published in the same document and are excluded. DISCREPANCY RECORDED RATHER THAN RESOLVED: the department's live entry-level announcement advertises 74,455.73 to 76,557.54, which matches no step on this schedule - it sits between Step 1 and Step 2 at the bottom and corresponded to Steps 9 and 10 of the old eighteen-step scale. The schedule publishes base wage and the announcement does not say what its figure includes. The base wage is the measure used here.
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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Entry pay, 2024–2026
Every point is the entry-class annual base printed in the agency’s own pay document. Base pay only — no shift differential, incentives or allowances.
How this level compares
Where Portsmouth 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 | $68,140 | $163,619 | 1549 |
| County | $35,000 | $63,565 | $132,263 | 516 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,166 | $110,916 | 145 |
| 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 $5,400 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,900 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,300 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Portsmouth starts at $70,060, so $1,920 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Portsmouth Police Department officer make?
Portsmouth Police Department starts a new officer on $70,060 a year, about $33.68 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 Portsmouth Police Department Patrol Officers Salary Schedule, July 1 2026 - June 30 2027, Appendix I — Step 1.
Is that good pay for a police officer in New Hampshire?
It ranks #2 of 17 agencies we have verified in New Hampshire — 15 pay less, 1 pay more in the state — and #933 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $3,376 above, and against other municipal agencies $1,920 above.
Compare with another department
Put Portsmouth 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 NH
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Portsmouth | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Keene Police Department | Municipal | 36 | $70,956 | +$896 | #883 |
| 3 | Manchester Police Department | Municipal | 250 | $68,016 | −$2,044 | #1,052 |
| 4 | Concord Police Department | Municipal | 79 | $67,995 | −$2,065 | #1,057 |
| 5 | Greenland Police Department | Municipal | 8 | $67,700 | −$2,360 | #1,076 |
| 6 | New Hampshire State Police | State | 350 | $66,872 | −$3,188 | #1,129 |
| 7 | Londonderry Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $66,664 | −$3,396 | #1,145 |
| 8 | Jaffrey Police Department | Municipal | 10 | $65,850 | −$4,210 | #1,197 |
| 9 | Hampton Police Department | Municipal | 37 | $64,896 | −$5,164 | #1,273 |
| 10 | Derry Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $64,314 | −$5,747 | #1,304 |
| 11 | Durham Police Department | Municipal | 21 | $64,268 | −$5,793 | #1,305 |
| 12 | Rochester Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $63,960 | −$6,100 | #1,322 |
| 13 | Chesterfield Police Department | Municipal | 4 | $61,776 | −$8,284 | #1,464 |
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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