Shreveport Police Department entry pay

What Shreveport says about itself

Provide outstanding police services, in partnership with the community, maintain a safe environment that contributes to the quality of life.

What Shreveport does

The Shreveport Police Department is the municipal force for Louisiana's third largest city, working from headquarters at 1234 Texas Avenue and a growing network of substations, with a third under construction to house the traffic bureau. Hiring and promotion run through the MUNICIPAL FIRE AND POLICE CIVIL SERVICE BOARD under Louisiana Revised Statutes 33:2491, not through the city administration, so applications go to the civil service secretary and appointments are made from board eligibility lists. The sworn ranks run recruit, officer, corporal in four grades, sergeant, lieutenant and captain, with a total sworn strength of 472 in the department's own pay schedule. The department also runs the city jail and its own communications center, so jailers, police communications officers and police vehicle technicians appear alongside sworn ranks on the same civil service pay schedule.

Where the figure comes from

Checked 20 September 2026. Police officer starting salary while attending the police academy, $2,805.23 a month, City of Shreveport Police Salary & Benefits page. — open the source document
POLICE OFFICERS START AT $2,805.23 A MONTH WHILE ATTENDING THE POLICE ACADEMY - $33,662.76 a year - and the department states that police officer pay proper begins only when a recruit graduates. A CERTIFIED OFFICER, ELIGIBLE AFTER ONE YEAR, IS $3,428.62 A MONTH ($41,143.44), and on certification the officer also draws $600 A MONTH IN LOUISIANA STATE SUPPLEMENTAL PAY - a statewide addition paid on top of the municipal salary, worth $7,200 a year. TWO CIVILIAN JOBS IN THE SAME DEPARTMENT START HIGHER THAN A POLICE RECRUIT: a jailer at $2,980.22 a month and a communications officer at $4,061.33, as does a vehicle technician at $4,020.84. Nine paid holidays, 18 vacation days, longevity pay of 2% a year for thirty years on top of rank increases, and a monthly education incentive of $200 for an associate's, $300 bachelor's, $400 master's. A take-home vehicle rebate is available under department policy SPD 203.12 to officers who live inside the city limits. DATED RAISES, FROM THE MAYOR'S 2026 BUDGET PROPOSAL OF 20 NOVEMBER 2025: police and fire civil service employees receive an ANNUAL 2% INCREASE AS A STANDING TERM, plus a further 3% effective 1 APRIL 2026 - 5% in total - and the annual uniform allowance doubles from $400 to $800. Entry requires being 21 to sit the state civil service examination, with NO MAXIMUM AGE; exam scores are transferable between Louisiana agencies and stay valid for 18 months. *** FLAGGED 20 SEPTEMBER 2026 - THIS ROW IS PUBLISHING A BARRED FIGURE AND SHOULD BE THE FIRST THING FIXED NEXT PASS. *** $33,662.76 is, by this row's own note and by the City's own wording, the rate paid WHILE ATTENDING THE POLICE ACADEMY, and the Department states that police officer pay proper begins only when a recruit graduates. An academy rate is not the entry figure under the standing rule. The trouble is that the page publishes no rate for the gap it creates: the only other municipal figure is $3,428.62 a month ($41,143.44) for a CERTIFIED officer, eligible only after one year, which is a later step - so the post-graduation, pre-certification rate that this row is supposed to carry has not been found. NOTHING HAS BEEN SUBSTITUTED, because both alternatives are wrong in opposite directions. Louisiana state supplemental pay of $600 a month is excluded by project convention in every LA row and is not part of any of these numbers. COULD NOT BE RE-READ TODAY: shreveportla.gov returned server errors on /448/Salary-Benefits twice and then failed robots, and its AgendaCenter pay-schedule files failed robots too, so the whole domain was unreachable. NEXT DOCUMENTS, IN ORDER: (1) /448/Salary-Benefits itself, once the site is up; (2) the Shreveport Municipal Fire and Police Civil Service pay schedule carried on the City's AgendaCenter; (3) the adopted City budget. IF NO POST-GRADUATION RATE IS PUBLISHED ANYWHERE, the row should be reconsidered rather than left carrying the academy wage. 20 September 2026, SECOND ATTEMPT: shreveportla.gov is STILL unreachable - /448/Salary-Benefits and both AgendaCenter pay schedules failed robots again, and no other employer route exists; the only other results are aggregators and two local news pieces about recruitment bonuses. THE FLAG IS REFINED RATHER THAN REPEATED, because there are two readings of the City's wording and the next reader should test both, not inherit mine. READING A, the one this flag was raised on: $2,805.23 a month is an ACADEMY-ONLY rate, police officer pay proper starts higher on graduation, and that higher rate is simply not published - in which case the row is carrying a barred figure. READING B: $2,805.23 IS the police officer starting salary, which happens to be paid from day one including while at the academy, and continues until certification at one year lifts it to $3,428.62 - in which case the row is correct as it stands and only the wording is misleading. Louisiana civil service classes usually run Police Recruit, then Police Officer, then a certified step, which is what makes Reading A plausible; but plenty of departments pay one rate straight through the academy, which is Reading B. NOTHING IS ASSUMED. The single question to answer on the page is whether a THIRD class sits between the academy rate and the certified rate. If it does, its figure is this row. If it does not, the row is already right.
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.

How this level compares

Where Shreveport sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.

How it ranks

Common questions

How much does a Shreveport Police Department officer make?

Shreveport Police Department starts a new officer on $33,663 a year, about $16.18 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 Police officer starting salary while attending the police academy, $2,805.23 a month, City of Shreveport Police Salary & Benefits page..

Is that good pay for a police officer in Louisiana?

It ranks #28 of 28 agencies we have verified in Louisiana — 0 pay less, 27 pay more in the state — and #2,279 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $33,022 below, and against other municipal agencies $34,477 below.

The agencies either side of it