Hired first, trained second, paid from the first day of the academy. No degree required in most of the country.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $76,210 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $47,510 at the lower end to about $115,120 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
1 to 4 years after high school, on the usual route.
From nothing up to about $46,000, depending on the route, for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a license, certificate or registration in Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$76,210
Bottom tenth
$47,510
Top tenth
$115,120
The 2025 national median is $76,210 a year, and the bottom tenth earn $47,510 or less. The federal survey counts city police and sheriff's deputies together, which matches how the job really works. Pay depends a great deal on the city.
Full salary from day one
Once a department hires you, training is a paid job
You start earning at 20 or 21 while friends are three years into tuition. Each department sets its own pay scale, and big cities pay well above the national median.
$97,600 a year or more
The 75th percentile of police and sheriff's patrol officers, 2025
Overtime, court appearances on days off and holiday work add to base pay, at the cost of a normal schedule.
Roughly, all in
Nothing to $46,000
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is zero, because a department hires you first, pays you through the academy and issues your uniform and equipment with a yearly allowance after that. The high end is a self sponsored academy, which some states let you attend before applying, plus a four year degree at an in state public university that most states do not require. Almost nobody enters this career in debt. If you do choose college first, file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, and a police job at a government agency counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
Almost nobody enters this career in debt. If you do go to college first, file the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), and remember that a police job at a government agency counts toward Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
A real pension
Los Angeles officers join the city's own police and fire pension system. Police jobs usually come with a defined-benefit pension.
Compressed shifts
Many departments run 10-hour or 12-hour shifts, which means more days off in a row.
Generous leave
Los Angeles gives officers 12 days of fully paid sick leave, and 15 vacation days a year after one year of service, rising to 23 after 10 years.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness
City, county, state and federal police jobs all qualify.
City-subsidized health and dental cover
Usually extended to your family.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
The hiring process is the hard part, and it is long. Training comes after you are already employed.
High school diploma or equivalent
Grade 12
The legal minimum nearly everywhere. Keep your record clean from now on: the background investigation covers drugs, driving, debt, employment and social media.
Reach the minimum age
0 to 3 years
Most agencies hire at 21, a few at 20. If you finish high school at 18 you will likely wait, and college, military service or a dispatch job are the usual ways to fill it.
Apply and get through testing
6 to 12 months
Written examination, physical fitness test, oral board, background investigation, polygraph in some states, then medical and psychological screening. It takes months and many applicants do not finish it.
Academy
About 6 months
A state-certified academy, roughly six months in most states, covering law, firearms, driving, tactics, first aid and report writing. You are paid the whole time.
Field training
4 to 12 months
Several months riding with a training officer who evaluates you daily, then a probation period. Only after that are you on your own.
English
Reports are evidence. Officers who cannot write clearly lose cases and promotions.
Physical education
The entry fitness test is a real barrier and the job lasts 25 years.
Psychology or sociology
Most of the job is talking people down, not chasing them.
Spanish or another second language
Useful on every shift in many cities.
There is no national police license. In 49 states a standards and training commission sets who may be hired, certifies officers and can strip that certification for misconduct. Hawaii only starts certifying officers in July 2028, and DC (the District of Columbia) sets hiring rules without a certificate. California's is the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training. Because certification is state-specific, moving to another state usually means extra coursework or a second academy, even after years of service.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Detective or investigations
Daytime hours, a caseload instead of a radio. Usually after several years on patrol.
Traffic and collision reconstruction
Technical, specialist and in demand.
K-9 handler
The dog lives with you, which is a lifestyle decision as much as a career one.
School resource officer
School-year hours and a very different relationship with the community.
Training officer
Teaching recruits, and the normal step before promotion to sergeant.
A clean personal history
Drug use, debt, a bad driving record or dishonesty in the application ends it.
Military or emergency medical experience
Weighted by most agencies and by federal hiring.
Dispatch or community service officer work
A paid way to spend the waiting years inside the agency you want to join.
Emergency medical technician certification
Some agencies look for it, and it makes you useful in the first five minutes of anything.
Sheriff's deputies, state troopers, transit and airport police, park rangers, campus police and federal uniformed police all do versions of this job with different schedules, jurisdictions and pay. Federal openings appear on USAJOBS (the official federal hiring site). If one door closes, and the hiring process closes a lot of them, the same certification and fitness often opens another.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Briefing, then you take a car and a radio for 10 or 12 hours. Most of it is calls that are not crimes: welfare checks, disputes, traffic collisions, mental health crises, people at the worst point of their week. Between calls you write, because everything needs a report. A few times a shift something moves fast and you have seconds to decide. Nights, weekends and holidays are normal, and court appearances land on your days off.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The national median for a patrol officer is $76,210 a year, but the Los Angeles Police Department advertises entry-level pay of $93,730 to $127,660.
Federal projections expect average growth for police and sheriff's patrol officers from 2025 to 2035, with about 51,500 openings a year across the country.
The Los Angeles Police Department offers many patrol officers a schedule of three 12-hour days or four 10-hour days a week, plus 13 paid floating holidays a year on top of vacation.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Police and fire first, then the rest of the field. See every career in law and public safety.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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