Rawlins Police Department entry pay

About Rawlins

The Rawlins Police Department polices the city of Rawlins, the seat of Carbon County in south-central Wyoming, from 215 5th Street. Carbon County runs to 7,897 square miles from mountains to desert, and the city sits at roughly 6,700 feet — high enough that the department states the altitude in its own physical agility standards. The City's adopted pay plan sets out the department's whole establishment: sworn ranks run Police Officer I, II and III, Sergeant, Lieutenant and Chief, alongside a civilian side of Communications Officer I and II, Senior Communications Officer, a Communications and Records Supervisor, a Victim's Assistance Coordinator, a Victim's Specialist, a Code Enforcement Officer and Animal Control Officers I and II — so dispatch, records, victim services, code enforcement and animal control all sit inside the same department. Nineteen officers are sworn. Named specialties and instructor roles include K-9, firearms instructor, custody and control instructor, bike patrol, drug recognition expert, investigations and school resource officer. Every officer is assigned a take-home patrol car, which the department says adds to the visibility of protection in the neighbourhoods where officers live, and the City pays all employee insurance premiums.

Where the figure comes from

Checked 8 September 2026. City of Rawlins 'Salary Schedule With Steps' dated June 30 2026, read with 'Positions Assigned by Salary Grade 2025-2026' — Police Officer I is salary grade 17, and grade 17 step 1 is $28.04 an hour — open the source document
Read 8 September 2026 from the City's own council-adopted pay plan, published on the City of Rawlins Employee Resources page as the Pay Plan and Positions by Salary Grade approved by Council on 18 March 2025. Two documents are needed together and neither works alone. 'Positions Assigned by Salary Grade 2025-2026' assigns Police Officer I to salary grade 17, Police Officer II to 18, Police Officer III to 20, Police Sergeant to 22, Police Lieutenant to 24 and Police Chief to 27. The 'Salary Schedule With Steps' dated 30 June 2026 then prices grade 17 step 1 at $28.04 an hour, which over 2,080 hours is $58,323.20 — the exact figure the department advertises for a new officer, to the cent. Police Officer I is the entry rank and the department states that all new officers attend the Wyoming Law Enforcement Academy with the City paying the tuition and the officer's salary, so no prior certification is required; experienced applicants may be eligible for peace officer certification reciprocity and are priced separately, which puts grade 17 step 1 on the non-lateral side. THIS FIGURE OVERRIDES THE CITY'S OWN PAY AND BENEFITS PAGE, WHICH IS STALE. That page states $46,196.00 for a new officer and $67,194.00 top officer; against the adopted schedule those are low by $12,127.20 and $12,116.40 — near-identical offsets, which is what a single un-revised page looks like. Grade 17 runs 21 steps to $38.13 an hour, $79,310.40, and the steps above 1 are excluded. Certification and education increases sit on top of the base rate and are excluded: POST Certified at Hire $1.50/hr, Associate degree $1.25, Bachelor's degree $1.25, EMT-Basic, Peace Officer Advanced, Peace Officer Professional and Bilingual $0.25 each, Field Training Officer $0.10.
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 Rawlins sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.

How it ranks

Common questions

How much does a Rawlins Police Department officer make?

Rawlins Police Department starts a new officer on $58,323 a year, about $28.04 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 Rawlins 'Salary Schedule With Steps' dated June 30 2026, read with 'Positions Assigned by Salary Grade 2025-2026' — Police Officer I is salary grade 17, and grade 17 step 1 is $28.04 an hour.

Is that good pay for a police officer in Wyoming?

It ranks #12 of 17 agencies we have verified in Wyoming — 5 pay less, 11 pay more in the state — and #1,658 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $8,362 below, and against other municipal agencies $9,817 below.

The agencies either side of it