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Rochester 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.
Rochester Police Department starts at $63,812 a year — about $30.68 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $4,578 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $7,452 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Rochester, NY run about 3% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $65,762 would somewhere at average prices — $1,950 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 133, where goods are 100. 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 isRochester Police Department reported 622 sworn officers and 98 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 3.0 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 206,391.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 Rochester says about itself
The Mission of the Rochester Police Department is: Crime reduction, customer service, and professionalism.
What Rochester does
Rochester Police Officers perform patrol, inspection, investigation and enforcement work, preserve the peace, protect lives and property, investigate criminal offenses and apprehend lawbreakers. The City's official examination describes the position as highly responsible municipal police work requiring independent judgment in emergency and routine situations
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Rochester official 2026 Police Officer — open the source document
Opened 15 May 2026; official Police Officer minimum $63,812 annually. This is an open competitive entry examination rather than a lateral-only process
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 Rochester 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. Rochester starts at $63,812, so $7,475 below the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Rochester Police Department officer make?
Rochester Police Department starts a new officer on $63,812 a year, about $30.68 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 Rochester official 2026 Police Officer.
Is that good pay for a police officer in New York?
It ranks #11 of 23 agencies we have verified in New York — 12 pay less, 10 pay more in the state — and #1,068 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $4,578 below, and against other municipal agencies $7,452 below.
Compare with another department
Put Rochester 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 NY
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Rochester | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York State Department of Financial Services — Investigations | State | — | $86,681 | +$22,869 | #269 |
| 2 | New York State Police | State | 5,373 | $85,292 | +$21,480 | #288 |
| 3 | New York State Park Police | State | 269 | $73,796 | +$9,984 | #602 |
| 4 | Onondaga County Sheriff's Office | County | 217 | $71,764 | +$7,952 | #681 |
| 5 | Yonkers Police Department | Municipal | 625 | $70,229 | +$6,417 | #755 |
| 6 | Erie County Sheriff's Office | County | 175 | $69,274 | +$5,462 | #800 |
| 7 | Livingston County Sheriff's Office | County | 66 | $67,808 | +$3,996 | #871 |
| 8 | New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers | State | — | $67,796 | +$3,984 | #872 |
| 9 | Yates County Sheriff's Office | County | 27 | $66,389 | +$2,577 | #956 |
| 10 | Albany Police Department | Municipal | 269 | $65,066 | +$1,254 | #1,017 |
| 12 | Nassau County Sheriff's Department | County | 2,591 | $62,657 | −$1,155 | #1,123 |
| 13 | Monroe County Sheriff's Office | County | 346 | $62,086 | −$1,726 | #1,153 |
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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