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Spokane 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.
Spokane Police Department starts at $73,101 a year — about $35.14 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $6,416 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $4,961 above the median for municipal agencies.
How big the department isSpokane Police Department reported 340 sworn officers and 98 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.5 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 230,962.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 Spokane says about itself
The Spokane Police Department is committed to providing excellence in policing, enhancing the safety and security of individuals, and building partnerships to better the lives of our community members as a whole. Our vision is to serve every member of our community with professionalism, integrity and compassion so that with every interaction we continue to build trust, preserve safety and model ethical policing. We serve to prevent and reduce crime, the fear of crime, and improve the quality of life for our residents and visitors; enforce laws while safeguarding the constitutional rights of all people; provide high-quality police services through integrity, compassion, and a commitment to innovation; and create a work environment in which we recruit, train, and develop an exceptional team of employees.
What Spokane does
The Spokane Police Department says it is committed to excellence in policing, enhancing individual safety and security, and building partnerships that improve the lives of community members. Its vision emphasizes professionalism, integrity and compassion, building trust, preserving safety and modeling ethical policing. The department also describes community partnership, crime prevention, constitutional rights and high-quality police service as central to its mission
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. City of Spokane official 2026 — open the source document
Opened 6 April 2026; closing 28 December 2026; official entry-level Police Officer salary begins $73,100.88 annually. The recruitment is specifically for applicants who are not currently police officers and have not completed Washington's Basic Law Enforcement Academy. The City classifies the position as Police Officer and states entry-level employees have an 18-month probationary period upon hire. Shift differential, education incentive, overtime and other add-on compensation are excluded
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 Spokane 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. Spokane starts at $73,101, so $4,961 above the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Spokane Police Department officer make?
Spokane Police Department starts a new officer on $73,101 a year, about $35.14 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 Spokane official 2026.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Washington?
It ranks #76 of 92 agencies we have verified in Washington — 16 pay less, 75 pay more in the state — and #754 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $6,416 above, and against other municipal agencies $4,961 above.
Compare with another department
Put Spokane 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 WA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Spokane | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seattle Police Department | Municipal | 1,064 | $117,792 | +$44,691 | #38 |
| 2 | Redmond Police Department | Municipal | 81 | $110,435 | +$37,334 | #59 |
| 3 | Auburn Police Department | Municipal | 120 | $108,386 | +$35,286 | #68 |
| 4 | Lynnwood Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $106,371 | +$33,270 | #81 |
| 5 | Everett Police Department | Municipal | 207 | $102,516 | +$29,415 | #106 |
| 6 | Vancouver Police Department | Municipal | 226 | $101,832 | +$28,731 | #110 |
| 7 | Kirkland Police Department | Municipal | 108 | $101,218 | +$28,117 | #118 |
| 8 | Tukwila Police Department | Municipal | 76 | $101,064 | +$27,963 | #120 |
| 9 | Bothell Police Department | Municipal | 70 | $101,055 | +$27,954 | #121 |
| 10 | Mount Vernon Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $100,836 | +$27,735 | #125 |
| 11 | Kennewick Police Department | Municipal | 107 | $100,104 | +$27,003 | #128 |
| 12 | Edmonds Police Department | Municipal | 48 | $99,168 | +$26,067 | #140 |
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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