Home › Police pay › California › San Luis Obispo Police Department
San Luis Obispo 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.
San Luis Obispo Police Department starts at $108,420 a year — about $52.12 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $41,735 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $40,280 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $97,923 somewhere at average prices — $10,497 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 159 against a national average of 100, where goods are 106. 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.
How big the department isSan Luis Obispo Police Department reported 58 sworn officers and 33 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.1 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 50,385.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 San Luis Obispo says about itself
To safeguard our community from harm by reducing crime and ensuring dignity, equity, and justice for all we serve.
What San Luis Obispo does
The San Luis Obispo Police Department serves the city of San Luis Obispo, California, on the central coast. Its officers are represented by a police officers association whose agreement puts patrol on a three-day twelve-hour week plus assigned pay back, swing shift officers on a four-day ten-hour week, and everyone on 160 hours in a 28-day work cycle. The City prices a one-step Police Cadet class defined as ten per cent below step 1 of Police Officer.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. City of San Luis Obispo Regular and Limited Term Employee Salary Schedule, effective 2 July 2026 — "POLICE OFFICER | 62502 | 720 | POA | 4,170 $ ...", bi-weekly step 1. — open the source document
$4,170 bi-weekly is the City's own step 1 figure for job code 62502 and $108,420.00 is that rate over twenty-six pay periods, which is exact rather than an estimate. THE CADET CLASS IS ON THE SAME SCHEDULE AND THE AGREEMENT DEFINES IT ARITHMETICALLY, WHICH SETTLES ANY DOUBT ABOUT WHICH IS WHICH: "POLICE CADET | 61500 | 714 | POA | 3,753 $", one step, and the agreement states "The salary range for Police Cadet consists of one step, paid ten (10%) percent below Step 1 of Police Officer" - and $4,170 times 0.9 is $3,753 exactly. There is no Police Trainee class. TWO FIGURES THE DEPARTMENT PUBLISHES ARE BARRED AND ARE RECORDED HERE SO NOBODY TAKES THEM LATER: "Earn up to $156,576.50/year. This includes base salary plus bilingual pay, education incentive, holiday pay and uniform allowance" is a ceiling AND a bundle, and "$45.08/hour to attend the Police Academy" is a trainee rate. Neither is base and neither is entry. A PATH CORRECTION: the document number, 21930, is stable but its version token is not - the token an earlier pass recorded pointed at the 2021 edition. The City's Human Resources page always links the current one.
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.
Entry pay, 2024–2026
Every point is the entry-class annual base printed in the agency’s own pay document. Base pay only — no shift differential, incentives or allowances.
How this level compares
Where San Luis Obispo 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. San Luis Obispo starts at $108,420, so $40,280 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a San Luis Obispo Police Department officer make?
San Luis Obispo Police Department starts a new officer on $108,420 a year, about $52.12 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 San Luis Obispo Regular and Limited Term Employee Salary Schedule, effective 2 July 2026 — "POLICE OFFICER | 62502 | 720 | POA | 4,170 $ ...", bi-weekly step 1..
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #64 of 278 agencies we have verified in California — 214 pay less, 63 pay more in the state — and #66 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $41,735 above, and against other municipal agencies $40,280 above.
Compare with another department
Put San Luis Obispo 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 CA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs San | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$55,199 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$41,023 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$39,522 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$35,583 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$34,676 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$32,604 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$31,320 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$30,545 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$29,841 | #9 |
| 10 | Los Gatos Police Department | Municipal | 34 | $132,394 | +$23,974 | #10 |
| 11 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$23,843 | #11 |
| 12 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$23,616 | #12 |
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
