Every year, chiefs, sheriffs and other law enforcement executive officers have to put together their budgets for the coming year. Some put together a single budget and then fight with whatever governing board to see what they end up with. Some put together a low-end, middle-ground and high-end budget and let the governing body decide what kind of service and image they want. What many of those who build budgets don’t have, especially when it comes to payroll, is any comparative information from other agencies. We’ve tried to resolve that issue.
Throughout the month of March, the Officer Media Group surveyed command staff level law enforcement professionals to ascertain what salaries and benefits are common. Here, in brief, is what we discovered through analysis of the survey responses.
The first, and perhaps most important, data point is that of all respondents, 72% were either chiefs of police, sheriffs, or other command staff members. 28% were patrol or line officers, but the rest held some position of responsibility for decision making in the budget process or budget management.
The largest majority of respondents represented municipal police agencies (62%). Keep in mind though, that doesn’t mean “small town.” As much as Humboldt, Iowa is a municipality, so is New York City. “Municipal” doesn’t equal “small.” The second largest group was county sheriff agencies or police departments, making up 23% of our responding group. With 7.4% of the remainder, state agencies were third on our list. The remainder of the respondents represented federal agencies, military agencies, corrections and private police agencies.
Fifty-one percent of the agencies represented have over 100 sworn personnel. The other half (49%) have less than 100 sworn. Roughly two-thirds of the respondents have been in law enforcement for 16 or more years, and about half have been with the same agency for that same time span.
The largest portion of respondents are paid between $75K to $100K per year (31%) with those making between $50K to $75K in second place at 28%. What’s shameful (for those paying the salaries) is that there are officers out there earning less than $50K (9.5%) and some even under $25K (.32%).
The full report is available online for download at officer.com/21218121.
