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Tavares 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.
Tavares Police Department starts at $55,855 a year — about $26.85 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,830 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $12,285 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Florida run about 3% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $54,011 somewhere at average prices — $1,844 less than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 122 against a national average of 100, where goods are 98. 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 isTavares Police Department reported 32 sworn officers and 5 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.4 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 22,825.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 Tavares says about itself
The mission of the Tavares Police Department (TPD) is to work in partnership with the community to protect life and property, solve neighborhood problems, and enhance the quality of life in our City.
What Tavares does
The Tavares Police Department is the municipal force for the City of Tavares in Lake County, the county seat, which calls itself America's Seaplane City for the municipal seaplane base on Lake Dora. It is a full-service agency of 32 sworn officers, one civilian code enforcement officer and 4.5 civilian employees serving about 19,000 residents, with K-9 and marine patrol units inside its road patrol division, and has been led since 2022 by Chief Sarah Coursey, a third-generation Tavares native and the first woman to hold the post.
Tavares’s rotation, in BlueShifts
The City publishes the road patrol roster in full: four squads, A through D, each on a twelve-hour shift, either 6:00am to 6:00pm or 6:00pm to 6:00am, working two days (or nights) on and two off, with two swing-shift officers covering peak demand and a sergeant over each squad.
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
Two on, two off never lands on the same weekdays twice, so the day you are free moves every fortnight and the squad you are on decides whether it is a day or a night. BlueShifts draws the whole cycle forward, marks your squad's days and nights apart, and shares it with the people who need to know when you are actually home.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 1 September 2026. Entry minimum salary, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Criminal Justice Agency Profile Report, Police Department Salary 2025. — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 January 2025.
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.
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.
How this level compares
Where Tavares 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. Tavares starts at $55,855, so $12,285 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Tavares Police Department officer make?
Tavares Police Department starts a new officer on $55,855 a year, about $26.85 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 Entry minimum salary, Florida Department of Law Enforcement Criminal Justice Agency Profile Report, Police Department Salary 2025..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Florida?
It ranks #193 of 303 agencies we have verified in Florida — 110 pay less, 192 pay more in the state — and #1,801 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,830 below, and against other municipal agencies $12,285 below.
What shifts do Tavares Police Department officers work?
The City publishes the road patrol roster in full: four squads, A through D, each on a twelve-hour shift, either 6:00am to 6:00pm or 6:00pm to 6:00am, working two days (or nights) on and two off, with two swing-shift officers covering peak demand and a sergeant over each squad. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Tavares 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 FL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Tavares | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boca Raton Police Services Department | Municipal | 195 | $91,007 | +$35,152 | #244 |
| 2 | Fort Lauderdale Police Department | Municipal | 565 | $81,723 | +$25,868 | #433 |
| 3 | Plantation Police Department | Municipal | 164 | $81,000 | +$25,145 | #459 |
| 4 | Hillsboro Beach Police Department | Municipal | 15 | $80,954 | +$25,099 | #461 |
| 5 | Pinecrest Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $80,912 | +$25,057 | #464 |
| 6 | Sunny Isles Beach Police Department | Municipal | 65 | $80,000 | +$24,145 | #496 |
| 7 | Indian Creek Village Public Safety Department | Municipal | 10 | $79,850 | +$23,995 | #500 |
| 8 | Sunrise Police Department | Municipal | 190 | $79,071 | +$23,216 | #520 |
| 9 | Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,720 | $78,828 | +$22,973 | #526 |
| 10 | Aventura Police Department | Municipal | 91 | $78,556 | +$22,701 | #536 |
| 11 | Longboat Key Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $78,430 | +$22,575 | #543 |
| 12 | Manalapan Police Department | Municipal | 13 | $78,280 | +$22,425 | #549 |
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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