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Pay · 33-3051

Police and sheriff patrol officers earn $76,210 a year at the midpoint

One of the largest occupations in the country — about 670,520 people — with a midpoint of $76,210 a year.

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$76,210median a year · United States
$36.64an hour $79,200average 670,520people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$59,29025th $76,210median $97,60075th
$47,51010th percentile $115,12090th percentile
$59,290a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$118,880best-paying state · California
$46,140lowest-paying state · Mississippi
+56%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $118,880 in California and $46,140 in Mississippi — a gap of $72,740 a year.

Police and sheriff patrol officer earnings, from starting pay to the best-paid 10%

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Place 247 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 69% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 245 First-Line Supervisors of Protective Service Workers, All Other $76,400
  2. 246 Computer Network Support Specialists $76,220
  3. 247 Police and sheriff patrol officers $76,210
  4. 248 Terrazzo Workers and Finishers $76,170
  5. 249 Human resources specialists $75,940

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  • Provided for public safety by maintaining order, responding to emergencies, protecting people and property, enforcing motor vehicle and criminal laws, and promoting good community relations.
  • Identified, pursued, and arrested suspects and perpetrators of criminal acts.
  • Verified that the proper legal charges have been made against law offenders.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Police and sheriff patrol officer wages, state by state

The 37 states where the most people do this work, of 51 with a published figure: their medians range by 2.58 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
California $118,880 $76,300 $76,300 — $153,190 65,940
Washington $102,080 $79,120 $79,120 — $132,200 9,160
Illinois $100,520 $58,420 $58,420 — $119,560 29,180
Colorado $97,350 $65,340 $65,340 — $109,300 9,610
New York $92,790 $53,000 $53,000 — $118,250 53,470
New Jersey $92,610 $57,740 $57,740 — $134,260 21,780
District of Columbia $88,650 $66,420 $66,420 — $119,660 4,720
Oregon $88,140 $66,380 $66,380 — $109,350 5,030
Pennsylvania $85,470 $48,680 $48,680 — $109,780 26,510
Minnesota $83,360 $60,670 $60,670 — $106,160 9,160
Connecticut $82,170 $63,310 $63,310 — $102,660 6,500
Massachusetts $78,940 $61,160 $61,160 — $108,150 17,040
Arizona $78,880 $60,990 $60,990 — $98,560 12,010
Nevada $78,140 $62,250 $62,250 — $102,810 5,720
Wisconsin $78,090 $58,530 $58,530 — $94,450 12,320
Maryland $77,970 $58,580 $58,580 — $113,700 9,720
Utah $77,310 $60,290 $60,290 — $99,920 5,500
Ohio $77,020 $51,110 $51,110 — $103,210 23,430
Texas $75,900 $51,240 $51,240 — $98,350 63,100
Florida $74,470 $51,330 $51,330 — $98,190 43,630
Iowa $74,470 $59,360 $59,360 — $101,520 5,130
Michigan $73,730 $47,780 $47,780 — $89,220 16,750
Indiana $73,370 $52,170 $52,170 — $100,010 12,980
New Mexico $69,180 $48,400 $48,400 — $85,740 4,580
Virginia $65,870 $50,000 $50,000 — $96,820 19,970
Kentucky $60,490 $38,780 $38,780 — $77,970 7,890
Oklahoma $59,700 $36,480 $36,480 — $94,940 9,660
Missouri $59,460 $43,210 $43,210 — $90,770 13,570
North Carolina $59,300 $46,040 $46,040 — $80,240 22,370
Tennessee $59,280 $43,520 $43,520 — $79,480 15,630
Kansas $59,230 $42,040 $42,040 — $90,530 6,130
Georgia $58,120 $43,690 $43,690 — $76,250 22,170
South Carolina $58,070 $45,060 $45,060 — $78,760 12,930
Alabama $51,270 $37,480 $37,480 — $77,220 11,710
Louisiana $48,380 $36,470 $36,470 — $69,140 12,400
Arkansas $47,670 $35,210 $35,210 — $70,190 5,710
Mississippi $46,140 $33,230 $33,230 — $61,550 8,070

Related work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Police and sheriff patrol officers$76,210
Detectives and Criminal Investigators$93,790+$17,580 Fish and Game Wardens$74,060−$2,150 Correctional Officers and Jailers$58,940−$17,270 Bailiffs$56,600−$19,610

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Police and sheriff patrol officer pay rate, hourly to annual

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$76,211a year

Questions people often ask

What is a police and sheriff patrol officer’s yearly income?

A police and sheriff patrol officer makes a median of $76,210 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $59,290 and $97,600.

What is a police and sheriff patrol officer’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $36.64 an hour; the average is $79,200 a year.

What is the starting pay for a police and sheriff patrol officer?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $59,290 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $47,510.

Which state pays police and sheriff patrol officers the most?

California, with a median of $118,880 a year.

How many people work as police and sheriff patrol officers?

About 670,520 in the United States — number 247 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays nearly the same

Median pay within $380 of what police and sheriff patrol officers earn — $76,210 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations