Home › Police pay › Virginia › Richmond Police Department
Richmond 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.
Richmond Police Department starts at $63,360 a year — about $30.46 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $5,030 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $7,904 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Richmond, VA run about 2% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $64,747 would somewhere at average prices — $1,387 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 89, where goods are 97. 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 isRichmond Police Department reported 608 sworn officers and 132 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 235,995.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 Richmond says about itself
The Richmond Police Department works to protect the city of Richmond through proactive policing, community partnerships, focused use of technology, and professional service.
What Richmond does
Richmond Police Department recruits candidates for careers in a large urban law-enforcement organization. Police Officer 1 Recruits enter the department's training process for sworn service protecting the public, enforcing law and providing professional municipal policing in Richmond
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Richmond official 2026 Police Officer 1 — open the source document
Opened 1 July 2026; closes 30 June 2027; official salary $63,360 annually. The City expressly accepts Police Recruits for its regular entry process. Incentives and other add-ons are 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 Richmond 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. Richmond starts at $63,360, so $7,927 below the municipal middle.
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.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Richmond Police Department officer make?
Richmond Police Department starts a new officer on $63,360 a year, about $30.46 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 Richmond official 2026 Police Officer 1.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Virginia?
It ranks #11 of 36 agencies we have verified in Virginia — 25 pay less, 10 pay more in the state — and #1,091 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $5,030 below, and against other municipal agencies $7,904 below.
Compare with another department
Put Richmond 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 VA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Richmond | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arlington County Police Department | County | 299 | $90,012 | +$26,652 | #215 |
| 2 | Falls Church Police Department | Municipal | 32 | $76,400 | +$13,040 | #496 |
| 3 | Alexandria Police Department | Municipal | 264 | $75,000 | +$11,640 | #560 |
| 4 | Fairfax County Police Department | County | 1,390 | $74,035 | +$10,675 | #593 |
| 5 | Prince William County Police Department | County | 656 | $74,000 | +$10,640 | #595 |
| 6 | Loudoun County Sheriff's Office | County | 648 | $70,955 | +$7,595 | #727 |
| 7 | Leesburg Police Department | Municipal | 74 | $68,500 | +$5,140 | #834 |
| 8 | Prince William County Sheriff's Office | County | 656 | $66,596 | +$3,236 | #941 |
| 9 | Henrico County Police Division | County | 628 | $65,959 | +$2,599 | #968 |
| 10 | Fairfax County Sheriff's Office | County | 433 | $64,997 | +$1,637 | #1,025 |
| 12 | Hanover County Sheriff's Office | County | 247 | $63,345 | −$15 | #1,093 |
| 13 | Chesterfield County Police Department | County | 499 | $62,751 | −$609 | #1,118 |
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.
Scan to install
