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Santa Barbara 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.
Santa Barbara Police Department starts at $113,048 a year — about $54.35 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $44,658 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $41,784 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA run about 9% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $103,906 somewhere at average prices — $9,142 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 151 against a national average of 100, where goods are 105. 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 isSanta Barbara Police Department reported 114 sworn officers and 79 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.3 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 86,926.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 Santa Barbara says about itself
The mission of the Santa Barbara Police Department is to provide for the public safety through the philosophy of community oriented policing. It is to protect and serve our community where all people can live in peace without fear of crime. It is to ensure a professional quality of service and accountability to the citizens of Santa Barbara and to all who should call upon our service.
What Santa Barbara does
The Santa Barbara Police Department describes its mission as providing for the safety and security of all people in the community through professional police service. Its official materials emphasize community partnership, crime prevention, response to calls for service, investigations, traffic safety, public education, and protecting life and property while maintaining public trust and professional standards
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Santa Barbara official 2026 P — open the source document
Opened 24 February 2026; official posting explicitly states $102,149 annually during academy and $113,048-$137,412 for successful Police Academy graduates. Minimum post-academy rate $113,048; hiring bonus excluded
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.
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How this level compares
Where Santa Barbara 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. Santa Barbara starts at $113,048, so $41,761 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Santa Barbara Police Department officer make?
Santa Barbara Police Department starts a new officer on $113,048 a year, about $54.35 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 Santa Barbara official 2026 P.
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #41 of 222 agencies we have verified in California — 181 pay less, 40 pay more in the state — and #42 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $44,658 above, and against other municipal agencies $41,784 above.
Compare with another department
Put Santa Barbara 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 Santa | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$50,571 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$36,395 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$34,894 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$30,955 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$30,048 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$27,976 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$26,692 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$25,917 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$25,213 | #9 |
| 10 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$19,215 | #10 |
| 11 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$18,988 | #11 |
| 12 | Campbell Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $131,747 | +$18,699 | #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.
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