Home › Police pay › California › San Rafael Police Department
San Rafael 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 Rafael Police Department starts at $116,602 a year — about $56.06 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $49,917 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $48,462 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $105,313 somewhere at average prices — $11,290 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 Rafael Police Department reported 62 sworn officers and 21 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.0 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 59,670.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 Rafael says about itself
The San Rafael Police Department is led by the Police Chief and supported by a dedicated team of command staff of two captains and four lieutenant, each with specific roles and responsibilities.
What San Rafael does
The San Rafael Police Department serves the city of San Rafael, California, the seat of Marin County north of the Golden Gate. It is led by a Police Chief with two captains and four lieutenants, one captain over administrative services and one over operations with a day shift and a night shift patrol lieutenant beneath. Patrol rotates twice a year, in the weeks nearest 15 March and 15 September, and where a bureau works a three-day twelve-hour schedule the rotation waits for a completed three-week cycle.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. City of San Rafael, San Rafael Police Association salary schedule 2024-2027 — grade 6107 POLICE OFFICER, step A: $116,602 annually, $9,717 monthly, $56.0585 hourly, effective 1 July 2026. — open the source document
$116,602 is the City's own annual figure for step A of grade 6107 and no arithmetic has been applied to it. THE CURRENT TABLE IS THE 2026 ONE: the schedule carries three dated pages, 1 June 2024, 1 July 2025 and 1 July 2026, and on 21 September 2026 the rate in force is the last of them. THE RECRUIT CLASS IS A SEPARATE GRADE AND IS NOT THE FIGURE: grade 6109 Police Recruit reads $95,289 annually, $45.8120 hourly, on the same dated page. THIS ROW EXISTS ONLY BECAUSE THE DOCUMENT WAS LOOKED AT RATHER THAN PARSED, AND THAT IS THE POINT OF RECORDING IT: three separate text extractions of this PDF returned three DIFFERENT class-label-to-row alignments - the step figures were identical every time, only the titles floated, a multi-column extraction failure. Rendered and read, the binding is fixed: 6106 Police Corporal, 6206 Police Evidence & Property Technician, 6107 Police Officer, 6109 Police Recruit, 6104 Police Sergeant, with Corporal showing N/A at steps A and B and Sergeant N/A at A, B and C. A CANDIDATE FIGURE WAS REFUTED BY THAT READING AND IS RECORDED SO IT IS NEVER RE-ADOPTED: $107,308 had been carried as the 1 July 2025 Police Officer rate. It is not. It is the MENTAL HEALTH LIAISON figure, grade 6220, from a different page. The true 1 July 2025 rate is $111,581, confirmed three ways - the rendered page, $53.6445 times 2,080 giving $111,580.56, and the agreement's own 3.0 per cent cost of living plus 1.5 per cent equity adjustment applied to $106,776.
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 Rafael 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 Rafael starts at $116,602, so $48,462 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a San Rafael Police Department officer make?
San Rafael Police Department starts a new officer on $116,602 a year, about $56.06 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 Rafael, San Rafael Police Association salary schedule 2024-2027 — grade 6107 POLICE OFFICER, step A: $116,602 annually, $9,717 monthly, $56.0585 hourly, effective 1 July 2026..
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #41 of 278 agencies we have verified in California — 237 pay less, 40 pay more in the state — and #42 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $49,917 above, and against other municipal agencies $48,462 above.
Compare with another department
Put San Rafael 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 | +$47,017 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$32,841 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$31,340 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$27,401 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$26,494 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$24,422 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$23,138 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$22,363 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$21,659 | #9 |
| 10 | Los Gatos Police Department | Municipal | 34 | $132,394 | +$15,792 | #10 |
| 11 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$15,661 | #11 |
| 12 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$15,434 | #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
