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River Forest 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.
River Forest Police Department starts at $90,106 a year — about $43.32 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $21,716 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $18,842 above the median for municipal agencies.
How big the department isRiver Forest Police Department reported 26 sworn officers and 2 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.2 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 11,833.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 River Forest says about itself
The mission of the River Forest Police Department is to provide professional, high quality and effective police service in partnership with the community. We, the members of the River Forest Police Department, believe that our work has a vital impact on the quality of life in our community.
What River Forest does
River Forest Police Department is a municipal police agency providing uniformed patrol, investigations, youth and senior services, traffic crash investigation and enforcement, bicycle patrol, disaster preparedness, crime prevention, home-security assessments, drug-abuse intervention and other community services. The department also participates in regional law-enforcement task forces through intergovernmental agreements
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Village of River Forest official June 2026 Entry Level Poli — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 May 2026.
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 River Forest 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. River Forest starts at $90,106, so $18,819 above the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a River Forest Police Department officer make?
River Forest Police Department starts a new officer on $90,106 a year, about $43.32 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 Village of River Forest official June 2026 Entry Level Poli.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Illinois?
It ranks #7 of 35 agencies we have verified in Illinois — 28 pay less, 6 pay more in the state — and #213 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $21,716 above, and against other municipal agencies $18,842 above.
Compare with another department
Put River Forest 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 IL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs River | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vernon Hills Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $94,460 | +$4,354 | #151 |
| 2 | Wilmette Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $93,156 | +$3,050 | #165 |
| 3 | Aurora Police Department | Municipal | 328 | $92,248 | +$2,142 | #176 |
| 4 | Des Plaines Police Department | Municipal | 97 | $91,440 | +$1,334 | #186 |
| 5 | Highland Park Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $91,158 | +$1,052 | #191 |
| 6 | Illinois State Police | State | 1,821 | $90,828 | +$722 | #199 |
| 8 | Elgin Police Department | Municipal | 203 | $88,274 | −$1,832 | #245 |
| 9 | Lake County Sheriff's Office | County | 113 | $87,297 | −$2,809 | #259 |
| 10 | Woodridge Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $84,781 | −$5,325 | #294 |
| 11 | DeKalb Police Department | Municipal | 72 | $83,449 | −$6,657 | #326 |
| 12 | Rolling Meadows Police Department | Municipal | 49 | $81,439 | −$8,667 | #362 |
| 13 | Bloomington Police Department | Municipal | — | $81,304 | −$8,802 | #368 |
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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