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Smithfield 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.
Smithfield Police Department starts at $82,885 a year — about $39.85 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $16,200 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $14,745 above the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Rhode Island run about 2% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $81,037 somewhere at average prices — $1,848 less than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 147, where goods are 97. 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 isSmithfield Police Department reported 46 sworn officers and 12 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.0 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 22,605.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 Smithfield says about itself
The mission of the Smithfield Police Department is to establish and maintain a proactive partnership with residents and business owners to work together in solving problems facing our community.
What Smithfield does
The Smithfield Police Department is a nationally accredited agency serving a town of about 22,000 in Providence County, home to Bryant University, from 215 Pleasant View Avenue. Alongside patrol it runs a detective division using in-house forensics, a commercial enforcement unit, traffic services, an honour guard, a mobile command center, its own dispatchers and a body-worn camera programme, with community policing programmes and published personnel complaint procedures
Where the figure comes from
Checked 6 September 2026. Town of Smithfield official employment posting — Smithfield Police Department: Police Officer — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 January 2027.
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 Smithfield 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. Smithfield starts at $82,885, so $14,745 above the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Smithfield Police Department officer make?
Smithfield Police Department starts a new officer on $82,885 a year, about $39.85 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 Town of Smithfield official employment posting — Smithfield Police Department: Police Officer.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Rhode Island?
It ranks #2 of 17 agencies we have verified in Rhode Island — 15 pay less, 1 pay more in the state — and #407 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $16,200 above, and against other municipal agencies $14,745 above.
Compare with another department
Put Smithfield 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 RI
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Smithfield | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management — Division of Law Enforcement / Environmental Police | State | 32 | $90,850 | +$7,965 | #249 |
| 3 | Rhode Island State Police | State | 267 | $81,579 | −$1,306 | #437 |
| 4 | Providence Police Department | Municipal | 435 | $81,468 | −$1,416 | #441 |
| 5 | North Providence Police Department | Municipal | — | $71,787 | −$11,098 | #829 |
| 6 | Burrillville Police Department | Municipal | 24 | $70,484 | −$12,401 | #908 |
| 7 | East Providence Police Department | Municipal | 86 | $69,155 | −$13,730 | #983 |
| 8 | Lincoln Police Department | Municipal | 40 | $69,000 | −$13,885 | #991 |
| 9 | Pawtucket Police Department | Municipal | 145 | $66,402 | −$16,483 | #1,167 |
| 10 | Warwick Police Department | Municipal | 169 | $65,739 | −$17,145 | #1,204 |
| 11 | North Kingstown Police Department | Municipal | — | $65,012 | −$17,873 | #1,255 |
| 12 | Portsmouth Police Department | Municipal | 39 | $64,358 | −$18,527 | #1,297 |
| 13 | Cranston Police Department | Municipal | 147 | $63,309 | −$19,576 | #1,364 |
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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