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Virginia Beach 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.
Virginia Beach Police Department starts at $61,734 a year — about $29.68 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $4,951 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $6,406 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Virginia run about 1% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $61,060 somewhere at average prices — $674 less than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 92, where goods are 100. 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 isVirginia Beach Police Department reported 711 sworn officers and 201 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.6 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 454,805.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 Virginia Beach says about itself
The Virginia Beach Police Department is committed to providing a safe community and improving the quality of life for all people. This is accomplished by delivering quality police services and enforcing laws with equity and impartiality. In partnership with our community members, organizations, and partners, VBPD reduces crime through public education, prevention, and awareness. In meeting this objective, the Department demands of its officers the highest professional standards and dedication to its core values.
What Virginia Beach does
The Virginia Beach Police Department is the largest municipal law enforcement agency in the Commonwealth of Virginia, serving over 450,000 residents in a city the department notes is routinely ranked among the safest of its size in the nation. It polices through four numbered precincts and four divisions - Administrative, Investigative, Operations and Support - with a detective bureau running cold case investigations, a forensic sciences unit, a crisis intervention team, special investigations and special operations, school resource officers, chaplains and a false alarm reduction unit. The department publishes its policies and its department data openly, runs a body-worn camera programme, and has signed the 30x30 Pledge on women in policing. It also maintains a standing officer wellness programme.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 27 August 2026. Police officer recruit pay on graduation from the academy, Virginia Beach Police Department recruiting site. — open the source document
RECRUITS ARE PAID $58,300 THROUGH THE 26-WEEK ACADEMY AND PROGRESS TO $61,734 ON GRADUATION, which is the entry step with no prior service and the figure carried here. TWO OFFICIAL FIGURES ARE IN CIRCULATION AND THEY DO NOT AGREE: the department's own careers page at police.virginiabeach.gov/careers/benefits still gives $54,776.40 for the same 26-week academy, while the recruiting site gives $58,300 - the higher pair sits alongside current career-progression figures and the current lateral bonus, so it reads as the updated version of the same page. Both are the department's; the older one is recorded here rather than quietly dropped. A certified lateral starts anywhere from $61,734 to over $100,000 depending on prior sworn service, with a $10,000 hiring bonus for in-state or out-of-state certified officers and an ABBREVIATED 8-WEEK LATERAL TRAINING PROGRAMME for Virginia DCJS-certified officers. Career progression runs Police Officer I through MASTER POLICE OFFICER II in four steps to $108,340, and sergeants to $119,445. Off-duty details start at $60 an hour and field training officers earn an extra $6.67 an hour while training. THE ACADEMY AND FIELD TRAINING ARE APPROVED FOR GI BILL BENEFITS by the Virginia State Approving Agency, so a veteran can draw education benefits while being paid to train. A separate OPTION 6 ACADEMY prices sheriff's deputies and certified jailers onto the Y.22 scale by experience, from $54,197.04 at a year or less to $67,615.60 at fourteen to fifteen years.
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 Virginia Beach 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. Virginia Beach starts at $61,734, so $6,406 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Virginia Beach Police Department officer make?
Virginia Beach Police Department starts a new officer on $61,734 a year, about $29.68 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 Police officer recruit pay on graduation from the academy, Virginia Beach Police Department recruiting site..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Virginia?
It ranks #16 of 42 agencies we have verified in Virginia — 26 pay less, 15 pay more in the state — and #1,468 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $4,951 below, and against other municipal agencies $6,406 below.
Compare with another department
Put Virginia Beach 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 VA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Virginia | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arlington County Police Department | County | 299 | $90,012 | +$28,278 | #269 |
| 2 | Falls Church Police Department | Municipal | 32 | $76,400 | +$14,666 | #605 |
| 3 | Alexandria Police Department | Municipal | 264 | $75,000 | +$13,266 | #677 |
| 4 | Fairfax County Police Department | County | 1,390 | $74,035 | +$12,301 | #716 |
| 5 | Prince William County Police Department | County | 656 | $74,000 | +$12,266 | #718 |
| 6 | Loudoun County Sheriff's Office | County | 648 | $70,955 | +$9,221 | #884 |
| 7 | Leesburg Police Department | Municipal | 74 | $68,500 | +$6,766 | #1,017 |
| 8 | Manassas Police Department | Municipal | 99 | $68,453 | +$6,719 | #1,024 |
| 9 | Prince William County Sheriff's Office | County | — | $66,596 | +$4,862 | #1,151 |
| 10 | Henrico County Police Division | County | 628 | $65,959 | +$4,225 | #1,188 |
| 11 | Fairfax County Sheriff's Office | County | 433 | $64,997 | +$3,263 | #1,263 |
| 12 | Fredericksburg Police Department | Municipal | 71 | $64,000 | +$2,266 | #1,319 |
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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