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Sulphur 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.
Sulphur Police Department starts at $43,553 a year — about $20.94 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $23,714 below the median of the 2,053 agencies on this list, and $25,233 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Louisiana run about 12% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $49,376 would somewhere at average prices — $5,823 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 63 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isSulphur Police Department reported 61 sworn officers to the FBI for 2025. That is 3.0 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 20,277.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 Sulphur says about itself
The committed and loyal officers and staff of the Sulphur Police Department are proud to serve the citizens and businesses of Sulphur. We provide law enforcement and emergency services to everyone living, working, or visiting the city.
What Sulphur does
The Sulphur Police Department serves the city of Sulphur in Calcasieu Parish, south-west Louisiana, west of Lake Charles. It describes itself as one of the highest paid agencies in south-west Louisiana and runs specialty assignments including a Training Division, Investigation Division, Traffic Division, Narcotics Division, K-9, a Special Response Team, field training officers and certified instructors in Taser, defensive tactics, OC spray and firearms. Patrol cruisers carry mobile computers for report writing and state record checks, and mobile video and audio recording. Officers get take-home patrol vehicles, paid health insurance, 15 paid holidays, 15 vacation days, a uniform allowance and access to off-duty details. Its work period is set by Louisiana statute: R.S. 33:2213(P), added in 2015, authorises the city to run twelve-hour shift cycles in the patrol, jail and communications divisions.
Sulphur’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Louisiana Revised Statute 33:2213(P), added by Act 106 of 2015, sets this department's cycle by name. Patrol, jail and communications staff run twelve-hour shifts and are divided into FOUR WORK GROUPS across a two-week pay cycle. Two groups work thirty-six hours the first week and forty-eight the second: "During the first week, the employees shall work Sunday, be off Monday and Tuesday, work Wednesday and Thursday, and be off Friday and Saturday. During the second week, they shall be off Sunday, work Monday and Tuesday, be off Wednesday and Thursday, and work Friday and Saturday." The other two groups run the same fortnight the other way round, forty-eight hours first and thirty-six second. Everyone in the department's other divisions works a forty-hour week set by the chief, and overtime is paid past eighty hours in the cycle.
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
The agency publishes the shift length but not a named cycle. These are the 12-hour rotations departments most often build on it: Pitman, 4 on, 4 off, DuPont, Panama, 3-4-4-3.
Four groups on the same fortnight means the officer next to you is on the opposite half of it - one of you has the long week while the other has the short one. BlueShifts draws whichever half you are on across real months and counts the hours against the eighty-hour fortnight, which is the period Louisiana law sets for a police officer rather than a flat week.
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.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 1 September 2026. Sulphur Police Department recruiting site: "Join Sulphur Police Department. Earn $43,553" — open the source document
Class: entry-level Police Officer. The figure is the headline of the Department's own recruiting site - "Join Sulphur Police Department. Earn $43,553" - which the site carries as its page title and social card while the body describes the entry-level officer role without repeating the number. THE SITE IS VERIFIED AS THE DEPARTMENT'S OWN: the City of Sulphur's recruitment page at sulphur.org links to joinsulphurpd.com twice and lists the recruiting officers' city email addresses, and the site footers as the Sulphur Police Department. Trainee class: NO - the vacancy advertised is the entry-level Police Officer post itself. On top of the entry figure, the Department states an annual 2 per cent rise on the anniversary date plus a further 1.5 to 2.5 per cent each 1 July subject to the city budget, and that a POST-certified officer receives Louisiana state supplemental pay of $600 a month after one year of service - $7,200 a year, which the Department counts as a pay increase rather than part of the starting figure. RECHECK PRIORITY: the number lives in a page title rather than a priced job posting, so confirm it against the city's pay ordinance or a live posting at the next pass.
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 Sulphur 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 | $68,786 | $163,619 | 1372 |
| County | $35,000 | $64,438 | $132,263 | 459 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,400 | $110,916 | 144 |
| 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 $4,700 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,100 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Sulphur starts at $43,553, so $25,233 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Sulphur Police Department officer make?
Sulphur Police Department starts a new officer on $43,553 a year, about $20.94 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 Sulphur Police Department recruiting site: "Join Sulphur Police Department. Earn $43,553".
Is that good pay for a police officer in Louisiana?
It ranks #12 of 28 agencies we have verified in Louisiana — 16 pay less, 11 pay more in the state — and #1,999 of 2,053 nationally. Against the national median it is $23,714 below, and against other municipal agencies $25,233 below.
What shifts do Sulphur Police Department officers work?
Louisiana Revised Statute 33:2213(P), added by Act 106 of 2015, sets this department's cycle by name. Patrol, jail and communications staff run twelve-hour shifts and are divided into FOUR WORK GROUPS across a two-week pay cycle. Two groups work thirty-six hours the first week and forty-eight the second: "During the first week, the employees shall work Sunday, be off Monday and Tuesday, work Wednesday and Thursday, and be off Friday and Saturday. During the second week, they shall be off Sunday, work Monday and Tuesday, be off Wednesday and Thursday, and work Friday and Saturday." The other two groups run the same fortnight the other way round, forty-eight hours first and thirty-six second. Everyone in the department's other divisions works a forty-hour week set by the chief, and overtime is paid past eighty hours in the cycle. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Sulphur 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 LA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Sulphur | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office | County | 916 | $58,200 | +$14,647 | #1,516 |
| 2 | Baton Rouge Police Department | Municipal | 544 | $58,000 | +$14,447 | #1,528 |
| 3 | Louisiana State Police | State | 1,192 | $57,680 | +$14,127 | #1,564 |
| 4 | Kenner Police Department | Municipal | 152 | $54,700 | +$11,147 | #1,696 |
| 5 | New Orleans Police Department | Municipal | 906 | $54,421 | +$10,868 | #1,708 |
| 6 | Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries — Enforcement Division | State | — | $53,997 | +$10,444 | #1,729 |
| 7 | Gretna Police Department | Municipal | 93 | $49,118 | +$5,565 | #1,898 |
| 8 | Lake Charles Police Department | Municipal | 138 | $48,500 | +$4,947 | #1,910 |
| 9 | Alexandria Police Department | Municipal | 93 | $48,271 | +$4,718 | #1,919 |
| 10 | Lafayette Police Department | Municipal | 278 | $45,000 | +$1,447 | #1,980 |
| 11 | Covington Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $43,672 | +$119 | #1,998 |
| 13 | Bossier City Police Department | Municipal | 200 | $42,576 | −$977 | #2,005 |
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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