Home › Police pay › California › Santa Rosa Police Department
Santa Rosa 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 Rosa Police Department starts at $104,111 a year — about $50.05 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $35,721 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $32,847 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA run about 8% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $96,592 somewhere at average prices — $7,519 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 155 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 Rosa Police Department reported 170 sworn officers and 71 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.0 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 177,414.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 Rosa says about itself
Welcome to the Santa Rosa Police Department (SRPD), where community policing is at the heart of everything we do. We are 256 employees who proudly serve the residents of Santa Rosa. Our staff works around the clock to protect lives and property that spans 40 square miles and is home to more than 160,000 people. We are committed to providing exceptional public safety services and taking a leadership role in building community partnerships to make our city a safer place to live, work and play.
What Santa Rosa does
SRPD states that community policing is at the heart of its work, that staff protect lives and property, provide public-safety services, and build community partnerships
Where the figure comes from
Checked 13 August 2026. $104,111 annual base. The official City Position Allocation and Salaries report effective July 2, 2026 lists Police Officer at $104,111 at the first salary point. — open the source document
$104,111 annual base. The official City Position Allocation and Salaries report effective July 2, 2026 lists Police Officer at $104,111 at the first salary point.
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 Santa Rosa 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 Rosa starts at $104,111, so $32,824 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Santa Rosa Police Department officer make?
Santa Rosa Police Department starts a new officer on $104,111 a year, about $50.05 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 $104,111 annual base. The official City Position Allocation and Salaries report effective July 2, 2026 lists Police Officer at $104,111 at the first salary point..
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #67 of 222 agencies we have verified in California — 155 pay less, 66 pay more in the state — and #70 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $35,721 above, and against other municipal agencies $32,847 above.
Compare with another department
Put Santa Rosa 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 | +$59,508 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$45,332 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$43,831 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$39,892 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$38,985 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$36,913 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$35,629 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$34,854 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$34,150 | #9 |
| 10 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$28,152 | #10 |
| 11 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$27,925 | #11 |
| 12 | Campbell Police Department | Municipal | 44 | $131,747 | +$27,636 | #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
