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Winter Garden 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.
Winter Garden Police Department starts at $64,960 a year — about $31.23 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $1,725 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $3,180 below the median for municipal agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Florida run about 3% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $62,816 somewhere at average prices — $2,145 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 isWinter Garden Police Department reported 89 sworn officers and 35 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025. That is 1.8 officers per 1,000 residents, over a population of 49,101.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 Winter Garden says about itself
As we enter the 21st century the Winter Garden Police Department will be a culturally diverse, highly motivated, professional law enforcement organization, representative of, and respected by, the community that it serves.
What Winter Garden does
The Winter Garden Police Department is the municipal force for Winter Garden in West Orange County, about twelve miles west of Orlando, and reports to the City Manager alongside Winter Garden Fire Rescue. It polices roughly 17 square miles for a residential population of about 50,800 in one of the fastest growing cities in the county, and has adopted a crime and investigator-based investigation philosophy. Community programmes include Police Explorers, Neighborhood Watch, Coffee with a Cop and Cookies and Milk with a Cop.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 31 August 2026. Police Officer, City of Winter Garden careers portal (cityofwintergarden.appone.com), posting requisition 6422682, currently accepting applications: "STARTING PAY RATE: $29.7437/hour (Annual rate: $64,960.16 - Entry rate for new Officer)". — open the source document
Their source is effective 13 August 2024.
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 Winter Garden 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. Winter Garden starts at $64,960, so $3,180 below the municipal middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Winter Garden Police Department officer make?
Winter Garden Police Department starts a new officer on $64,960 a year, about $31.23 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, City of Winter Garden careers portal (cityofwintergarden.appone.com), posting requisition 6422682, currently accepting applications: "STARTING PAY RATE: $29.7437/hour (Annual rate: $64,960.16 - Entry rate for new Officer)"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Florida?
It ranks #107 of 303 agencies we have verified in Florida — 196 pay less, 106 pay more in the state — and #1,267 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $1,725 below, and against other municipal agencies $3,180 below.
Compare with another department
Put Winter Garden 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 Winter | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boca Raton Police Services Department | Municipal | 195 | $91,007 | +$26,047 | #244 |
| 2 | Fort Lauderdale Police Department | Municipal | 565 | $81,723 | +$16,763 | #433 |
| 3 | Plantation Police Department | Municipal | 164 | $81,000 | +$16,040 | #459 |
| 4 | Hillsboro Beach Police Department | Municipal | 15 | $80,954 | +$15,994 | #461 |
| 5 | Pinecrest Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $80,912 | +$15,951 | #464 |
| 6 | Sunny Isles Beach Police Department | Municipal | 65 | $80,000 | +$15,040 | #496 |
| 7 | Indian Creek Village Public Safety Department | Municipal | 10 | $79,850 | +$14,890 | #500 |
| 8 | Sunrise Police Department | Municipal | 190 | $79,071 | +$14,111 | #520 |
| 9 | Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,720 | $78,828 | +$13,868 | #526 |
| 10 | Aventura Police Department | Municipal | 91 | $78,556 | +$13,596 | #536 |
| 11 | Longboat Key Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $78,430 | +$13,470 | #543 |
| 12 | Manalapan Police Department | Municipal | 13 | $78,280 | +$13,320 | #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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