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Southaven 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.
Southaven Police Department starts at $61,982 a year — about $29.80 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $4,703 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $6,158 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Mississippi run about 13% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $71,282 would somewhere at average prices — $9,300 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 56 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isSouthaven Police Department reported 150 sworn officers and 29 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 2.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 58,174.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 Southaven says about itself
The mission of the Southaven Police Department is to keep Southaven a safe place to live, work, and visit. Our community partnerships with businesses, churches, schools and residents allow the Southaven Police Department to provide fair and impartial police services in a professional manner.
What Southaven does
The Southaven Police Department describes Patrol Officer work as general-duty and investigative municipal policing protecting life and property and serving citizens. Officers prevent crime, apprehend offenders, enforce laws and ordinances, patrol by vehicle, foot, bicycle or motorcycle, respond independently to emergencies and may later serve in detective, investigative, traffic or other specialized assignments
Where the figure comes from
Checked 20 September 2026. City of Southaven official Patrol Offi — open the source document
Current City employment page verified 9 August 2026; official non-certified Patrol Officer base pay $61,981.92 annually. The posting requires only age 21 and a high-school diploma/equivalent and does not require prior law-enforcement experience or certification. The separately stated $2,724.48 holiday-equivalent compensation is excluded from the base-pay figure FLAGGED 20 September 2026 - CONFLICT WITH THE CITY'S OWN SALARY SHEET, NOT RESOLVED AND THE FIGURE NOT CHANGED. The City publishes a Southaven Police Salary / Benefits sheet on its own document center giving a completely different and much lower ladder: 'P-1 - Pre-Academy $42,157.18 yr. / P-2 - Certified Officer (upon graduation) $49,909.08 yr. / P-3 - After 30 months service $52,804.70 yr. / P-4 - After 48 months service $54,628.86 yr.', with Sergeant at $57,820.88. That sheet carries NO DATE. The row's $61,981.92 came from the City's own employment page, but re-reading that page today the Patrol Officer-Non Certified posting is dated 7 September 2021 and the City's job list no longer displays any salary figures at all. So there is no dated basis on which to prefer either number, and the row is left where it is rather than downgraded onto an undated sheet. TWO THINGS TO SETTLE, IN THIS ORDER: (1) which ladder is current; (2) IF the P-1/P-2 structure is still in force, then whatever the current figures are, the row must carry the P-2 'upon graduation' rate and not the pre-academy rate - the sheet shows Southaven prices a pre-academy class separately, which is exactly the fault corrected this pass at Berkeley County and North Myrtle Beach. NEXT DOCUMENT: the City of Southaven adopted budget or a current Patrol Officer job posting carrying a figure.
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 Southaven 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. Southaven starts at $61,982, so $6,158 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Southaven Police Department officer make?
Southaven Police Department starts a new officer on $61,982 a year, about $29.80 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 Southaven official Patrol Offi.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Mississippi?
It ranks #2 of 12 agencies we have verified in Mississippi — 10 pay less, 1 pay more in the state — and #1,451 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $4,703 below, and against other municipal agencies $6,158 below.
Compare with another department
Put Southaven 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 MS
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Southaven | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | DeSoto County Sheriff's Office | County | 185 | $65,564 | +$3,582 | #1,216 |
| 3 | Hattiesburg Police Department | Municipal | 92 | $55,000 | −$6,982 | #1,853 |
| 4 | Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol | State | 397 | $54,000 | −$7,982 | #1,910 |
| 5 | Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics | State | — | $54,000 | −$7,982 | #1,911 |
| 6 | Oxford Police Department | Municipal | 106 | $52,531 | −$9,451 | #1,967 |
| 7 | Gulfport Police Department | Municipal | 134 | $51,241 | −$10,740 | #2,024 |
| 8 | Mississippi Department of Revenue - Alcoholic Beverage Control Bureau of Enforcement | State | — | $50,000 | −$11,982 | #2,077 |
| 9 | Biloxi Police Department | Municipal | 122 | $48,300 | −$13,682 | #2,136 |
| 10 | Mississippi Capitol Police | State | — | $46,700 | −$15,282 | #2,175 |
| 11 | Ocean Springs Police Department | Municipal | 39 | $45,474 | −$16,508 | #2,196 |
| 12 | Mississippi Department of Marine Resources - Marine Patrol | State | — | $45,000 | −$16,982 | #2,208 |
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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