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Reno 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.
Reno Police Department starts at $68,890 a year — about $33.12 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $500 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $2,375 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Reno, NV run about 1% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $68,198 somewhere at average prices — $692 less than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: rent at 123, where goods are 96. 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.
How big the department isReno Police Department reported 336 sworn officers and 88 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 286,060.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 Reno says about itself
We are committed to partner with our Community to create a safe city by providing the highest level of police services.
What Reno does
Reno Police Department's official materials describe a professional municipal law-enforcement agency whose investigative functions seek to reduce crime through complete and thorough investigations while protecting victims' rights. The department promises victims respect, compassion and dignity and provides specialized investigative services for violent, property, financial, computer and family-related crimes
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Reno official P — open the source document
Current continuous posting opened 1 July 2026; official recruit salary $68,889.60. No separate immediate academy-graduation increase was established by the official source in this pass, so no unsupported higher figure is substituted
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 Reno 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. Reno starts at $68,890, so $2,397 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Reno Police Department officer make?
Reno Police Department starts a new officer on $68,890 a year, about $33.12 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 Reno official P.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Nevada?
It ranks #5 of 19 agencies we have verified in Nevada — 14 pay less, 4 pay more in the state — and #820 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $500 above, and against other municipal agencies $2,375 below.
Compare with another department
Put Reno 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 NV
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Reno | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nevada Gaming Control Board — Enforcement Division | State | 63 | $102,692 | +$33,802 | #79 |
| 2 | Boulder City Police Department | Municipal | 35 | $75,941 | +$7,051 | #522 |
| 3 | Washoe County Sheriff's Office | County | 465 | $75,296 | +$6,406 | #546 |
| 4 | Henderson Police Department | Municipal | 534 | $71,885 | +$2,995 | #672 |
| 6 | North Las Vegas Police Department | Municipal | 315 | $68,099 | −$790 | #856 |
| 7 | Nevada State Police — Highway Patrol | State | — | $67,939 | −$950 | #866 |
| 8 | Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department | Municipal | 3,226 | $67,662 | −$1,227 | #881 |
| 9 | Douglas County Sheriff's Office | County | 104 | $66,851 | −$2,038 | #926 |
| 10 | Clark County Office of Public Safety | Municipal | — | $64,022 | −$4,867 | #1,059 |
| 11 | Nevada Department of Agriculture — Agricultural Police | State | — | $60,636 | −$8,254 | #1,206 |
| 12 | City of Las Vegas Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 109 | $58,912 | −$9,978 | #1,291 |
| 13 | Nevada Department of Wildlife — Law Enforcement Division | State | — | $57,637 | −$11,252 | #1,353 |
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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