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Police pay in Texas
Entry pay in Texas runs from $39,078 to $91,106 a year. Verified at 140 agencies, each figure taken from that employer's own published document and dated on its page.
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.
The middle Texas agency starts officers on $72,847, above the national middle of $68,390 — 10th of the 50 states we can rank.
How Texas compares
Every figure below is a starting salary — what an agency pays an officer in their first year, before overtime. Each one is the middle agency of its group: half pay more, half pay less.
| Agencies compared | Middle TX agency | Middle US agency | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| All agencies | $72,847 | $68,390 | +7% |
| City departments | $74,261 | $71,302 | +4% |
| Sheriff's offices | $70,054 | $65,374 | +7% |
The best-paid agency in Texas starts officers on 2.3 times what the lowest-paid one does — $91,106 against $39,078. Overall, Texas ranks 10th of the 50 states we can rank.
By level
Municipal111 agencies
Lowest$39,078
Middle$74,261
Highest$91,106
Across 111 city departments in Texas.
Sheriff15 agencies
Lowest$39,823
Middle$70,054
Highest$83,220
Across 15 sheriff's offices in Texas.
State2 agencies
Texas Highway Patrol$55,441
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department — Law Enforcement Division / Texas Game Wardens$55,441
Only two verified here, so we name them rather than give a middle figure.
Special jurisdiction12 agencies
Lowest$45,011
Middle$63,000
Highest$78,452
Across 12 special jurisdiction agencies in Texas.
Every Texas agency we have verified
Across the state line
What the middle agency starts on in the states Texas borders.
Also for Texas: What Texas agencies say about off-duty work Taken from each agency's own published policy.
Also: Every agency we have verified The statistics Municipal departments Sheriff's offices
Figures checked between 8 August 2026 and 20 August 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 the figure shown. Where an agency publishes both an academy rate and a post-academy rate, the post-academy rate is used. A missing agency has not been checked, not found to pay less.
Your shifts and your off-duty work, on one calendar
Save the rotation your agency runs and the year fills itself in. The off-duty jobs you take go in beside it, with what each one paid.
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