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Rolling Meadows 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.
Rolling Meadows Police Department starts at $81,439 a year — about $39.15 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $13,049 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $10,175 above the median for municipal agencies.
How big the department isRolling Meadows Police Department reported 49 sworn officers and 7 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.1 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 23,621.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 Rolling Meadows says about itself
The Police Department works to enhance the quality of life by maintaining order, protecting life and property, and reducing the fear of crime. Our agency is accredited through the Illinois Law Enforcement Accreditation Program, which ensures our policies and practices meet the highest standards.
What Rolling Meadows does
Rolling Meadows Police Department says its mission is to enhance quality of life by maintaining order, protecting life and property and reducing fear of crime. It describes itself as dedicated to excellence through integrity, pride, professionalism and respect and emphasizes professional police service, community collaboration, engagement, accreditation and continuous improvement
Shifts at Rolling Meadows
The uniformed Patrol Unit provides 24-hour coverage of the City and responds to over 9,000 calls each year, with officers assigned to a community policing area and sergeants supervising deployment at the shift level.
Task force call-outs for NIPAS and MCAT land on top of the patrol tour, and they do not check the roster first. BlueShifts keeps the shift, the call-outs and the court dates on one calendar.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Rolling Meadows official Entry — open the source document
Opened 20 May 2026; continuous; official entry-level minimum $81,439
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 Rolling Meadows 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. Rolling Meadows starts at $81,439, so $10,152 above the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Rolling Meadows Police Department officer make?
Rolling Meadows Police Department starts a new officer on $81,439 a year, about $39.15 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 Rolling Meadows official Entry.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Illinois?
It ranks #12 of 35 agencies we have verified in Illinois — 23 pay less, 11 pay more in the state — and #362 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $13,049 above, and against other municipal agencies $10,175 above.
What shifts do Rolling Meadows Police Department officers work?
The uniformed Patrol Unit provides 24-hour coverage of the City and responds to over 9,000 calls each year, with officers assigned to a community policing area and sergeants supervising deployment at the shift level. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Rolling Meadows 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 Rolling | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vernon Hills Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $94,460 | +$13,021 | #151 |
| 2 | Wilmette Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $93,156 | +$11,717 | #165 |
| 3 | Aurora Police Department | Municipal | 328 | $92,248 | +$10,809 | #176 |
| 4 | Des Plaines Police Department | Municipal | 97 | $91,440 | +$10,001 | #186 |
| 5 | Highland Park Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $91,158 | +$9,719 | #191 |
| 6 | Illinois State Police | State | 1,821 | $90,828 | +$9,389 | #199 |
| 7 | River Forest Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $90,106 | +$8,667 | #213 |
| 8 | Elgin Police Department | Municipal | 203 | $88,274 | +$6,835 | #245 |
| 9 | Lake County Sheriff's Office | County | 113 | $87,297 | +$5,858 | #259 |
| 10 | Woodridge Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $84,781 | +$3,342 | #294 |
| 11 | DeKalb Police Department | Municipal | 72 | $83,449 | +$2,010 | #326 |
| 13 | Bloomington Police Department | Municipal | — | $81,304 | −$135 | #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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