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Surprise 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.
Surprise Police Department starts at $74,214 a year — about $35.68 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $7,530 above the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $6,074 above the median for municipal agencies.
How big the department isSurprise Police Department reported 179 sworn officers and 81 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.0 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 173,922.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 Surprise says about itself
The Surprise Police Department is divided in four divisions: Field Operations, Administrative Services, Professional Development and Criminal Investigations.
What Surprise does
The Surprise Police Department serves the City of Surprise, Arizona, and is organized into four divisions: Field Operations, Administrative Services, Professional Development and Criminal Investigations.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 19 September 2026. City of Surprise Police Department Recruitment Information Packet (PRU-INFO, Rev. 10/2025), Police Officer Recruit rate — open the source document
Document revised October 2025; $35.68/hr while attending the Police Academy, annualized at 2,080 hours. Lateral officers start between $35.68 and $50.48/hr by experience.
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 Surprise 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. Surprise starts at $74,214, so $6,074 above the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Surprise Police Department officer make?
Surprise Police Department starts a new officer on $74,214 a year, about $35.68 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 Surprise Police Department Recruitment Information Packet (PRU-INFO, Rev. 10/2025), Police Officer Recruit rate.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Arizona?
It ranks #8 of 36 agencies we have verified in Arizona — 28 pay less, 7 pay more in the state — and #707 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $7,530 above, and against other municipal agencies $6,074 above.
Compare with another department
Put Surprise 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 AZ
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Surprise | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scottsdale Police Department | Municipal | 391 | $81,474 | +$7,259 | #440 |
| 2 | Tempe Police Department | Municipal | 353 | $79,977 | +$5,763 | #497 |
| 3 | Goodyear Police Department | Municipal | 174 | $77,147 | +$2,933 | #580 |
| 4 | Buckeye Police Department | Municipal | 133 | $76,003 | +$1,789 | #626 |
| 5 | Phoenix Police Department | Municipal | 2,490 | $75,847 | +$1,633 | #637 |
| 6 | Queen Creek Police Department | Municipal | 132 | $74,693 | +$478 | #689 |
| 7 | Chandler Police Department | Municipal | 348 | $74,610 | +$395 | #693 |
| 9 | Peoria Police Department | Municipal | 234 | $74,194 | −$21 | #708 |
| 10 | Mesa Police Department | Municipal | 885 | $73,972 | −$242 | #720 |
| 11 | Glendale Police Department | Municipal | 406 | $73,389 | −$825 | #742 |
| 12 | Casa Grande Police Department | Municipal | 82 | $72,860 | −$1,354 | #768 |
| 13 | Gilbert Police Department | Municipal | 310 | $71,906 | −$2,309 | #818 |
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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