Police Lieutenant

Across all employers in the Nashville-Davidson--Murfreesboro--Franklin, TN area, the median wage for First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives — about 1,050 people — is $94,420. Police Patrol South Sector Key pays a median base salary of $66,031 for this role, 30% below that figure — about the 21st percentile of local pay for the occupation.

Computed over the 21 of 25 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.

Median total compensation for this role at Police Patrol South Sector Key is $72,543, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.

Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.

Police Lieutenant is held in 52 Metro Nashville departments. In Police Patrol South Sector Key, the median of $72,543 ranks #31 of 52.

This role is reported in 22 jurisdictions. In Metro Nashville, the median of $78,338 ranks #20 of 22. See Police Lieutenant across all of Metro Nashville →