How to Become a Police Officer in Amarillo, Texas

Join Amarillo Police Department reprints STARTING SALARY OF $72,847 and STARTING SALARY AT $72,847, and points at the same table. Those two Join lines match the table cell.

City of Amarillo FY 2024/2025 Approved Budget New Positions POL760 POLICE OFFICER P40 1 FTE $90,250 is one added officer, not Step 1. Those two figures are not averaged.

City of Amarillo Policy 400 Compensation Plan (March 1, 2025) names a Police Salary Schedule approved by City Council, and says Chapter 143 police officers are paid on salary ranges, steps, and time-in-grade set by the City Manager and approved by Council. That policy does not print the dollar cells. The Police Salary Schedule PDF was not opened this retrieval. $72,847 is the department table cell, not an opened ordinance row.

Amarillo Fire, Amarillo ISD PD, and Amarillo College PD hire on separate schedules. This page covers Amarillo PD.

The license is TCOLE's. The job is Amarillo PD's. Those are two gates. The Texas sequence is in How to Become a Police Officer in Texas. The license rules are in TCOLE peace officer license requirements. This page is the department recruiting tree, the Benefits/Salaries table, and the live Workday lateral card.

Department listing: Amarillo Police Department. Pay comparison: Texas police salary by department. That salary page still keeps Amarillo out of the N=12 table because that collection is DFW municipal departments plus Texas DPS, and because Benefits/Salaries is a recruiting table, not an adopted schedule opened for that collection. City hiring guides in this series: Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Irving, Frisco, McKinney, Mesquite, Grand Prairie, Denton. Texas DPS hiring from Training Operations is How to Become a Texas State Trooper. Houston hiring from hpdcareer.com and NEOGOV 5328764 is How to Become a Police Officer in Houston. Lubbock hiring from Recruiting, the 2025-26 pay scale, NEOGOV 5405047, and lateral 5097636 is How to Become a Police Officer in Lubbock. Brownsville hiring from the June 13, 2025 civil service notice, Employment & Benefits, and the stay-tuned exam page is How to Become a Police Officer in Brownsville. McAllen hiring from the August 21, 2026 civil service notice, Staff Services, and the October 13, 2026 exam packet is How to Become a Police Officer in McAllen. Waco hiring from the FY 2025-2026 Civil Service Police Salary Schedule, NEOGOV 5344313, Employment, Training, and Employment Fitness Test is How to Become a Police Officer in Waco.

What Amarillo PD actually is

Headquarters: 200 SE 3rd Ave, Amarillo, TX 79101. Hours Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Non-emergency (806) 378-3038. Recruiting apdrecruiting@amarillo.gov or (806) 805-4748. Academy Sergeant Casey Ogden, casey.ogden@amarillo.gov. Human Resources accommodations (806) 378-4294.

The home page prints a message from the Chief of Police. That message does not print the Chief's name. Directory sworn stays 0. Directory stations stays 0.

The live apply door

The recruit Apply Now link is not a live apply card. Join and Hiring Process still point at Workday Police-Officer_JR1057. The Workday job JSON for JR1057 returned permission denied (HTTP 403) this retrieval. JR1057 is not a live apply card.

Hiring Process still lists Career Information Session/Row Clinic dates through Thursday, August 20th, then Written Examination Saturday, August 22nd, 2026, Physical Readiness Test the same day, and 108th Academy December 3rd, 2026. Those session dates are already past this retrieval. Those exam and academy dates are the department page as printed. They are not an open recruit posting.

The live card on this retrieval is laterals. Police Officer (In-State Lateral Entry), JR2397 can be applied to. Workday: posted 30+ days ago, posting startDate June 9, 2026, End Date September 18, 2026, 27 days left to apply this retrieval. No dollar on the card. Body: Civil Service Test and Physical Readiness Test MUST BE COMPLETED BY SEPTEMBER 18, 2026. Start Date: NOVEMBER 12, 2026. Apply at careers.amarillo.gov. Watch Hiring Process for the next recruit notice.

TCOLE Statewide Vacancies reprints Amarillo Police Department, In-State Lateral Police Officer, date 09/18/2026. That matches JR2397's close. The TCOLE "Get Info" file is a generic state-lateral PDF, not an Amarillo pay table.

The Lateral Entry Program page still links Workday Police-Officer--Lateral-Entry-_JR222. JR222 returned HTTP 403 this retrieval. JR222 is not a live apply card. The live requisition is JR2397. Out-of-state JR2396 also returned 403 this retrieval.

Minimum requirements

Hiring Process qualifications:

Citizen of the United States. That is Amarillo PD's hiring rule. TCOLE also licenses a legal permanent resident who is an honorably discharged veteran with two years of service and has applied for citizenship (37 TAC 217.1(b)(17)).

Possess a valid Texas Driver's License upon employment. That Texas license is Amarillo PD's hiring rule, not a TCOLE minimum. TCOLE's floor is that you are not prohibited from operating a motor vehicle (37 TAC 217.1(b)(8)).

Age 21 on first day of police academy. TCOLE's own floor is 21, or 18 with an associate's degree, 60 semester hours, or an honorable discharge after two years of active service (37 TAC 217.1(b)(1)(A)). Amarillo's recruit door is 21 on first academy day. Those are not the same measuring point. Read TCOLE peace officer license requirements.

Uncorrected vision of at least 20/200, correctable to 20/20 in both eyes (eyesight between 20/100 and 20/200 must have a letter from their doctor stating eyesight is in static condition). Must pass a written entrance exam and physical readiness test.

High School Graduate or GED. GED requires 12 hours from an accredited college with a GPA of 2.0 or higher.

Applicants must provide copies of driver's license, social security card, birth certificate, high school diploma, GED and/or college transcripts, and DD-214 Member 4 form (if applicable). Military service may receive 5 points preference on the Civil Service Entrance Exam for an Honorable Discharge.

Automatic disqualifiers on that page include felony or Class A conviction, probation, deferred adjudication, or community supervision; Class B within the previous 10 years; three at-fault traffic accidents within the previous three years; eight moving-violation citations in the previous three years or three in the previous year; a presently suspended driver's license; any domestic violence conviction; Dishonorable Discharge or Other Discharge based on misconduct; illegal possession or use of a felony-class controlled substance; illegally dealing in narcotics. TCOLE makes a Class A conviction a lifetime bar and puts the ten-year lookback on Class B only (37 TAC 217.1(b)(4), (b)(6)). Family violence bars on community supervision as well as conviction (217.1(b)(7)). The city's Class A conviction, probation, deferred adjudication, or community supervision bar matches TCOLE's lifetime floor; the TCOLE family-violence community-supervision bar is the license gate even if Hiring Process names "any conviction of domestic violence."

Recruits reach the Texas Basic Peace Officer exam after the academy, not at apply.

The test, a 2000-meter row

Written exam first. Hiring Process: Written Examination Saturday, August 22nd, 2026. A study-guide link sits on that page. A passing percent is not printed on Hiring Process, Join, Academy Preparation, or JR2397. That gap is not filled from another city.

Physical Readiness Test the same day: 2000 Meter Row on a Concept 2. Hiring Process links Academy Preparation for the row. Academy Preparation names a Concept 2 Rower Calculator. A single passing time is not printed. Not CPAT. Not a 4-minute damper-5 pass.

After that, Hiring Process lists Background Investigation, Computerized Voice Stress Analysis (CVSA) Examination, Oral Interview Board, Chief's Interview, Medical Examination, and Psychological Examination.

JR2397 laterals: Test dates and times contingent on scheduling availability. All applicants who pass the written exam will take the physical readiness test after the written exam. Civil Service Test and Physical Readiness Test MUST BE COMPLETED BY SEPTEMBER 18, 2026.

Academy length

Academy Preparation: the Amarillo Police Academy is held at the Amarillo Police Department from 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM Monday through Friday with some evening and night training. 32 weeks of classroom and hands-on training. The academy is designed so each recruit can take and pass the Texas Basic Peace Officer licensing exam. The page says the academy meets the minimum 720 hours of mandated training and exceeds that with over 1200 hours.

After academy, recruits are assigned to the Uniform Division for a 16-week Field Training Officer Program. Upon successful completion of FTO, new officers are assigned to a permanent shift.

Training and Personnel still links a 102nd Academy Schedule PDF. The live academy named on Hiring Process is the 108th, December 3rd, 2026. The 102nd schedule is not the 108th calendar.

See What to expect at a Texas police academy.

Laterals

Lateral Entry Program is a live page. Applications go to careers.amarillo.gov under Police Officer (Lateral Entry). The JR222 details link is not the live requisition. JR2397 is.

At application, each lateral hire must be actively employed as a full-time paid police officer for a municipal, county, or state law enforcement agency that handles a full array of police work. Age at least 21 by hire date. No maximum. High school diploma, or GED plus 12 hours of college credit at a 2.0 GPA.

Workday JR2397 required qualifications print a tighter education line: high school diploma or GED plus 12 hours of college credit, and repeat current peace officer license twice. Both the page split and the Workday wording are published. Those two education lines are not averaged into one rule.

Each in-state lateral completes a short, modified training course. The Chief may send any lateral through the full Amarillo Police Academy. Out-of-state laterals without a Texas Peace Officer license must complete the entire academy, or acquire a Texas license on their own. Out-of-state laterals who already hold a Texas license take the modified course. Probation is one year after being commissioned. Rank from the prior agency does not transfer; the classification is Police Officer.

Lateral base pay is up to Police Officer Step 5 (4-6 years' experience) on the structured pay plan in effect at hire. The Chief sets the step from comparable experience. After FTO, a lateral hired at Step 2 or higher is awarded 40 hours of annual leave.

Lateral Pay Range on that page: $77,219-$93,860. Benefits/Salaries Step 2 is $77,218 and Step 6 is $93,860. The laterals-page low is $77,219 and the table Step 2 is $77,218. Those two figures are not averaged.

JR2397 start date in the body is November 12, 2026. Recruit academy on Hiring Process is December 3, 2026. Those are two doors.

Pay and benefits

Benefits/Salaries, retrieved 2026-08-21.

Recruit Officer (Step 1): $72,847. 1 Year Officer (Step 2): $77,218 through 5 Year Officer (Step 6): $93,860. Certificate pay: Intermediate $600/year, Advanced $900/year, Master $1,200/year. Education pay: college hours up to $420/year, Associate's $900/year, Bachelor's $1,500/year, Master's $1,800/year. Shift differential an additional 3 percent of gross pay. Bilingual $50 per month. Equipment including Tasers, encrypted digital radios, and body camera furnished. Thirteen paid holidays. Vacation: 15 days per year for 6 years.

Retirement: all Amarillo officers are required to be members of the Texas Municipal Retirement System. The officer contributes 7 percent and the City matches 2:1. Eligible for retirement benefits at any age with 20 years of service. That is TMRS, not the Amarillo Firemen's Relief and Retirement Fund. Keep AFRRF off this slug.

Sources, used 2026-08-21 and 2026-08-22

• Benefits/Salaries (Recruit Officer Step 1 $72,847; Step 2 $77,218 through Step 6 $93,860; TMRS 7 percent / 2:1; retrieved 2026-08-21)
• Join Amarillo Police Department (STARTING SALARY $72,847; JR1057 Apply Now is not a live apply card; retrieved 2026-08-21)
• Hiring Process (Aug 22, 2026 written and 2000-meter row; 108th Academy Dec 3, 2026; age 21 on first academy day; JR1057 is not a live apply card; retrieved 2026-08-21)
• Academy Preparation (32 weeks; over 1200 hours vs 720 mandated; 16-week FTO; retrieved 2026-08-21)
• Lateral Entry Program ($77,219-$93,860; JR222 is not a live apply card; Step 5 cap; retrieved 2026-08-21)
• Workday JR2397 (in-state lateral; End Date Sep 18, 2026; start Nov 12, 2026; tests by Sep 18; no dollar; retrieved 2026-08-21)
• TCOLE Statewide Vacancies (In-State Lateral 09/18/2026; retrieved 2026-08-21)
• Policy 400 Compensation Plan (Police Salary Schedule named; cells not printed; retrieved 2026-08-21)
• FY 2024/2025 Approved Budget (New Positions POL760 $90,250 one added FTE, not Step 1; retrieved 2026-08-21)
• Apply board careers.amarillo.gov
• Adopted 37 TAC §217.1, effective June 1, 2026 (TCOLE license floor; retrieved 2026-08-21)