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Rutland City 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.
Rutland City Police Department starts at $67,600 a year — about $32.50 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $915 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $540 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Vermont run about 2% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $69,009 would somewhere at average prices — $1,409 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 126, where goods are 97. Based on state-wide price levels, because this agency is not tied to a single metro 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.
What Rutland City says about itself
The Rutland City Police Department is a fast-paced, community-focused agency dedicated to proactive policing and public safety.
What Rutland City does
The Rutland City Police Department polices a patrol area of 7.67 square miles with a permanent population of 15,851 that rises to more than 30,000 daily with visitors and workers, and it answered 17,409 calls for service in 2025. It works in three divisions: Patrol, divided into four shifts each working a 12-hour rotating schedule - two day shifts and two night shifts, each under a sergeant; the Bureau of Criminal Investigations, which handles major crimes and complex cases; and Community Outreach, staffed by a police commander who also serves as executive director of Project Vision, a sergeant, two community resource specialists, an animal control officer, a downtown beat officer and a school resource officer, and set up to address the underlying conditions of crime rather than arrests alone. Support Services holds the Professional Standards commander, the Criminal Investigations Unit, the operations manager and records. Officers are enrolled in VMERS Group D, work 14 paid holidays, and outside detail pay is published at $74.66 an hour.
Rutland City’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Rutland City divides patrol into four shifts, each working a 12-hour rotating schedule - two day shifts and two night shifts, each under a sergeant - and the Department advertises every other Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, with 14 paid holidays.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
Twelve-hour shifts that rotate through four squads put your weekends off on a two-week beat rather than a weekly one, and the alternating Friday-to-Sunday block is the part families plan around. BlueShifts holds days and nights as separate shift types on the same cycle, so a swap between squads redraws every month ahead rather than a single week.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 1 September 2026. Rutland City Police Department recruitment page, Salary & Pay Incentives: "$67,600 ($32.50/hr) - Upon Level III Academy Graduation" — open the source document
Class: Police Officer on graduation from the Vermont Criminal Justice Council Level III academy. The Department publishes two rates in the same list - $57,616 ($27.70/hr) as the pre-academy and academy rate, and $67,600 ($32.50/hr) upon Level III graduation - and the post-academy officer rate is the one taken, the same reading already applied to South Burlington. Trainee class: NO. Prior sworn service is not required: certified officers and out-of-state waiver applicants are priced separately and higher, at $32.50 to $40.61/hr, so $32.50 is the non-lateral entry step. Department's own page, article modified 2 March 2026, checked 1 September 2026. STILL OPEN AND NOT USED: a copy of the Department's own advertisement carried on a job board prices certified officers at $34.41 to $43.66/hr from 1 July 2026, and the Board of Aldermen ratified a three-year agreement with the police union in March 2025 at 6.5 per cent, 4 per cent and 7.5 per cent - so a 1 July 2026 step almost certainly exists. It is not published here because no City document has been found stating it; the routes left are the City's FY2027 wage schedule and the Board of Aldermen packet that carries it.
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.
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 this level compares
Where Rutland City 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 | $33,280 | $68,140 | $163,619 | 1549 |
| County | $35,000 | $63,565 | $132,263 | 516 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,166 | $110,916 | 145 |
| 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 $5,400 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,900 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,300 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Rutland City starts at $67,600, so $540 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Rutland City Police Department officer make?
Rutland City Police Department starts a new officer on $67,600 a year, about $32.50 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 Rutland City Police Department recruitment page, Salary & Pay Incentives: "$67,600 ($32.50/hr) - Upon Level III Academy Graduation".
Is that good pay for a police officer in Vermont?
It ranks #6 of 16 agencies we have verified in Vermont — 10 pay less, 5 pay more in the state — and #1,089 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $915 above, and against other municipal agencies $540 below.
What shifts do Rutland City Police Department officers work?
Rutland City divides patrol into four shifts, each working a 12-hour rotating schedule - two day shifts and two night shifts, each under a sergeant - and the Department advertises every other Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, with 14 paid holidays. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Rutland City 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 VT
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Rutland | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vermont State Police | State | 256 | $84,160 | +$16,560 | #370 |
| 2 | Burlington Police Department | Municipal | 59 | $81,653 | +$14,053 | #435 |
| 3 | Montpelier Police Department | Municipal | 15 | $80,870 | +$13,270 | #466 |
| 4 | Williston Police Department | Municipal | 14 | $71,032 | +$3,432 | #873 |
| 5 | Brandon Police Department | Municipal | 2 | $70,720 | +$3,120 | #899 |
| 7 | Colchester Police Department | Municipal | 27 | $66,560 | −$1,040 | #1,156 |
| 8 | South Burlington Police Department | Municipal | 33 | $64,668 | −$2,932 | #1,282 |
| 9 | Winooski Police Department | Municipal | 15 | $63,752 | −$3,848 | #1,333 |
| 10 | Barre Town Police Department | Municipal | 6 | $61,194 | −$6,406 | #1,491 |
| 11 | Stowe Police Department | Municipal | 13 | $60,070 | −$7,530 | #1,560 |
| 12 | Shelburne Police Department | Municipal | 10 | $59,613 | −$7,987 | #1,604 |
| 13 | Barre City Police Department | Municipal | — | $58,531 | −$9,069 | #1,651 |
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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