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Sioux Falls 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.
Sioux Falls Police Department starts at $72,030 a year — about $34.63 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $5,346 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $3,890 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Sioux Falls, SD-MN run about 9% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $79,477 would somewhere at average prices — $7,446 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 78 against a national average of 100, where goods are 95. 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 isSioux Falls Police Department reported 284 sworn officers and 36 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.3 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 213,449.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 Sioux Falls says about itself
Partnering with the community to serve, protect, and promote quality of life!
What Sioux Falls does
The Sioux Falls Police Department recruits Police Officers to serve, protect and promote quality of life in the community. Officers perform municipal law-enforcement and public-safety duties while the department emphasizes service, character, community impact and professional development
Sioux Falls’s rotation, in BlueShifts
The City publishes the patrol roster in its own police officer posting: most schedules are four consecutive 10-hour shifts with three days off, week to week, and an annual shift bid lets sworn personnel set their weekly work dates and hours for the calendar year.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
DayNight24 hrsOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
Four 10-hour days then three off is a seven-day cycle, so it does sit on the week - but the annual shift bid means the days themselves change from year to year. BlueShifts redraws the cycle from the new bid once and carries it forward, rather than re-entering it month by month.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 6 September 2026. City of Sioux Falls official 2026 ; corroborated by the City of Sioux Falls / Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #1 labor contract, 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027, published on siouxfalls.gov — open the source document
Their source is effective 5 January 2026.
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 Sioux Falls 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. Sioux Falls starts at $72,030, so $3,890 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Sioux Falls Police Department officer make?
Sioux Falls Police Department starts a new officer on $72,030 a year, about $34.63 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 Sioux Falls official 2026 ; corroborated by the City of Sioux Falls / Fraternal Order of Police Lodge #1 labor contract, 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027, published on siouxfalls.gov.
Is that good pay for a police officer in South Dakota?
It ranks #1 of 18 agencies we have verified in South Dakota — the highest in the state in the state — and #810 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $5,346 above, and against other municipal agencies $3,890 above.
What shifts do Sioux Falls Police Department officers work?
The City publishes the patrol roster in its own police officer posting: most schedules are four consecutive 10-hour shifts with three days off, week to week, and an annual shift bid lets sworn personnel set their weekly work dates and hours for the calendar year. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Sioux Falls 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 SD
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Sioux | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Rapid City Police Department | Municipal | 157 | $70,491 | −$1,539 | #907 |
| 3 | Spearfish Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $68,307 | −$3,723 | #1,035 |
| 4 | Pierre Police Department | Municipal | 20 | $68,307 | −$3,723 | #1,036 |
| 5 | Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office | County | 86 | $66,893 | −$5,138 | #1,128 |
| 6 | South Dakota Highway Patrol | State | 150 | $64,251 | −$7,779 | #1,306 |
| 7 | Mitchell Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $63,492 | −$8,538 | #1,350 |
| 8 | Pennington County Sheriff's Office | County | 217 | $63,357 | −$8,674 | #1,361 |
| 9 | Aberdeen Police Department | Municipal | 54 | $62,587 | −$9,443 | #1,404 |
| 10 | Yankton Police Department | Municipal | 30 | $58,253 | −$13,777 | #1,659 |
| 11 | Edmunds County Sheriff's Office | County | 8 | $58,136 | −$13,894 | #1,668 |
| 12 | Vermillion Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $57,491 | −$14,539 | #1,728 |
| 13 | Brown County Sheriff's Office | County | 21 | $55,578 | −$16,453 | #1,816 |
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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