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Vernon Hills 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.
Vernon Hills Police Department starts at $94,460 a year — about $45.41 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $26,070 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $23,196 above the median for municipal agencies.
How big the department isVernon Hills Police Department reported 44 sworn officers and 12 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 27,046.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 Vernon Hills says about itself
To fulfill our mission we are committed to acknowledging our responsibility to the citizens of Vernon Hills, our source of authority; performing our duties within the spirit and the letter of our laws and constitution; and remaining sensitive to human needs and treating each person with respect.
What Vernon Hills does
Vernon Hills Police Department serves a Lake County village north-west of Chicago, taking over 30,000 calls a year. Its patrol section is the largest part of the agency and works four shifts, each under a commander and a sergeant acting as shift supervisors, with additional officers rostered from 10am to 10pm and from 2pm to 2am to reinforce the busiest hours. Alongside sworn officers the department employs full-time civilian community service officers who handle animal and parking enforcement, minor crashes on private property and traffic control at collision scenes, and a crime prevention unit running a citizens police academy and security surveys.
Shifts at Vernon Hills
The Patrol Section is the largest section of the agency and is comprised of four shifts of officers, each with a commander and a sergeant as shift supervisors, handling over 30,000 calls a year.
Four shifts means your weekends move through the year and no two months look alike. BlueShifts draws the pattern out months ahead so you can plan against it.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Village of Vernon Hills official — open the source document
Their source is effective 1 May 2026.
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 Vernon Hills 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 | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| 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 $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Vernon Hills starts at $94,460, so $23,173 above the municipal middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Vernon Hills Police Department officer make?
Vernon Hills Police Department starts a new officer on $94,460 a year, about $45.41 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 Village of Vernon Hills official.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Illinois?
It ranks #1 of 35 agencies we have verified in Illinois — the highest in the state in the state — and #151 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $26,070 above, and against other municipal agencies $23,196 above.
What shifts do Vernon Hills Police Department officers work?
The Patrol Section is the largest section of the agency and is comprised of four shifts of officers, each with a commander and a sergeant as shift supervisors, handling over 30,000 calls a year. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Vernon Hills 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 IL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Vernon | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Wilmette Police Department | Municipal | 45 | $93,156 | −$1,304 | #165 |
| 3 | Aurora Police Department | Municipal | 328 | $92,248 | −$2,212 | #176 |
| 4 | Des Plaines Police Department | Municipal | 97 | $91,440 | −$3,020 | #186 |
| 5 | Highland Park Police Department | Municipal | 60 | $91,158 | −$3,302 | #191 |
| 6 | Illinois State Police | State | 1,821 | $90,828 | −$3,632 | #199 |
| 7 | River Forest Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $90,106 | −$4,354 | #213 |
| 8 | Elgin Police Department | Municipal | 203 | $88,274 | −$6,186 | #245 |
| 9 | Lake County Sheriff's Office | County | 113 | $87,297 | −$7,163 | #259 |
| 10 | Woodridge Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $84,781 | −$9,679 | #294 |
| 11 | DeKalb Police Department | Municipal | 72 | $83,449 | −$11,011 | #326 |
| 12 | Rolling Meadows Police Department | Municipal | 49 | $81,439 | −$13,021 | #362 |
| 13 | Bloomington Police Department | Municipal | — | $81,304 | −$13,156 | #368 |
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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