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Blaine County Sheriff's Office entry pay
What this agency pays a new officer to start, and how that compares with the rest of the country.
Entry pay onlyEvery salary here is what an officer is paid on day one, out of the academy — base pay on a 40-hour week, with no overtime, shift differential, specialty or education pay counted. Nobody stays on it.
Blaine County Sheriff's Office starts at $74,526 a year — about $35.83 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $6,136 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $9,152 above the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in rural Idaho run about 8% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $81,127 would somewhere at average prices — $6,600 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 70 against a national average of 100, where goods are 97. Based on price levels for the non-metropolitan part of this state, because this agency is outside every metro area, from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024. The salary above is what the employer publishes; this line is our arithmetic on it, and nothing on this site is ranked on it.
How big the department isBlaine County Sheriff's Office reported 20 sworn officers and 26 civilian staff to the FBI for 2025.No rate is shown: this agency does not police a single population the FBI publishes a figure for. Reporting to the FBI is voluntary, so a count can reflect a partial return as easily as a small agency, and the FBI asks that agencies not be compared on staffing. Source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, Full-time Law Enforcement Employees, 2025.
What Blaine County says about itself
The men and women of the Blaine County Sheriff’s Office are committed to being a professional organization dedicated to the concepts of personal excellence, continuous improvement, teamwork, and service to our community. We take pride in our organization, our professional accomplishments, and our abilities to make Blaine County a safe place to live, work, and play.
What Blaine County does
Blaine County Sheriff's Office provides patrol, investigations, detention, civil, court-security, search-and-rescue and specialized public-safety services. Official County materials emphasize service, integrity, professionalism and community safety.
Blaine County’s rotation, in BlueShifts
Full-time positions with 12-hour rotating shifts (4/3). Rotating Schedules, including days, nights, & weekends.
The rotation template screen — enter the cycle and the start date, and you are done.
WorkingOff
Every month, already filled in — no typing, however far ahead you look.
September 2026
This cycle has its own page: how it works, and how to build it.
Blaine County publishes the days on and off but not which are days and which are nights. In BlueShifts you choose that yourself — every shift can be a day, a night or a 24-hour tour, and the calendar marks it with a sun, a moon or a clock.
A 4-on, 3-off line on 12-hour tours gives the same days off each week but rotates through days and nights, so the month never looks the same twice. BlueShifts draws the cycle once and fills in every month ahead, with the grave and swing differentials counted alongside.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. This figure was advertised on the state POST job board on that date; postings there rotate, so the listing itself may since have closed. Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training official Law Enforcement Job Postings — Blaine County Sheriff's Office Hiring Detention and Patrol Deputies — open the source document
Open 9 February 2026–8 October 2026; FY26 entry-level and lateral applicants accepted; minimum $35.83/hour annualized at 2,080 hours
Entry-level base salary only. Overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift
differentials, locality pay and lateral rates are excluded, so most officers earn more
than this.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
How this level compares
Where Blaine County sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.
| Level | Lowest | Median | Highest | Agencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| Federal | $70,477 | $73,502 | $86,530 | 5 |
| Territory | $16,640 | $28,236 | $43,354 | 9 |
Federal agencies pay the most to start
The middle federal agency starts at $73,502 — about $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Blaine County starts at $74,526, so $9,152 above the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Blaine County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Blaine County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $74,526 a year, about $35.83 an hour on a 2,080-hour year. That is base salary before overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift differentials and locality pay, so most serving officers earn more. The figure comes from Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training official Law Enforcement Job Postings — Blaine County Sheriff's Office Hiring Detention and Patrol Deputies.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Idaho?
It ranks #2 of 51 agencies we have verified in Idaho — 49 pay less, 1 pay more in the state — and #577 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $6,136 above, and against other county agencies $9,152 above.
What shifts do Blaine County Sheriff's Office officers work?
Full-time positions with 12-hour rotating shifts (4/3). Rotating Schedules, including days, nights, & weekends. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Blaine County Sheriff's Office side by side with any other agency on the site — the two salaries, what each is worth once local prices are counted, and which comes out ahead.
The agencies either side of it
Other agencies in ID
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Blaine | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun Valley Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,005 | +$478 | #558 |
| 3 | Boise Police Department | Municipal | 326 | $69,514 | −$5,013 | #791 |
| 4 | Meridian Police Department | Municipal | 109 | $67,621 | −$6,906 | #885 |
| 5 | Post Falls Police Department | Municipal | 52 | $67,330 | −$7,197 | #904 |
| 6 | Coeur d'Alene Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $66,872 | −$7,654 | #925 |
| 7 | Kootenai County Sheriff's Office | County | 104 | $65,291 | −$9,235 | #1,006 |
| 8 | Ada County Sheriff's Office | County | 220 | $64,896 | −$9,630 | #1,030 |
| 9 | McCall Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $63,773 | −$10,754 | #1,069 |
| 10 | Moscow Police Department | Municipal | 30 | $63,544 | −$10,982 | #1,079 |
| 11 | Lewiston Police Department | Municipal | 46 | $63,321 | −$11,206 | #1,094 |
| 12 | Idaho State Police | State | 311 | $62,546 | −$11,981 | #1,128 |
| 13 | Bellevue Marshal's Office | Municipal | 5 | $60,320 | −$14,206 | #1,223 |
Base pay is only part of the year
Whatever the figure above, the rotation is what decides your year — which weekends you lose, when the changeovers land, what you can plan around. Save yours once and BlueShifts shows it a year ahead, with the off-duty jobs you take and what each one paid.
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