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Dawson 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.
Dawson County Sheriff's Office starts at $53,445 a year — about $25.69 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $13,240 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $10,115 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Georgia run about 4% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $55,502 would somewhere at average prices — $2,057 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 89 against a national average of 100, where goods are 99. Based on state-wide price levels, because this agency is not tied to a single 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 isDawson County Sheriff's Office reported 88 sworn officers and 40 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 Dawson County says about itself
It is the mission of the Dawson County Sheriff's Office to protect the lives and property of our people through professional, progressive, and proactive service.
What Dawson County does
The Dawson County Sheriff's Office is the county law enforcement agency for Dawson County in the north Georgia mountains, working from 19 Tucker Avenue in Dawsonville. Its components are Administration, Communications (911), Detention, Investigations, Professional Standards, School Resource Officers, Sheriff's Services and Uniform Patrol with a Crime Suppression Unit.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 23 September 2026. Dawson County Sheriff's Office, Answer the Call: Uniform Patrol Officers - "Certified with No Experience Starting Salary $53,445", "13 Paid Holidays", "Experienced Officers Pay to be Determined". — open the source document
$53,445 is printed by the office as the starting salary for a CERTIFIED patrol officer WITH NO EXPERIENCE, which is exactly the entry test: no prior service, POST certification only. Experienced officers are paid a figure "to be Determined", so there is no lateral number to confuse it with. The Detention ($48,227) and E911 ($43,226) figures on the same page are other jobs. No effective date is printed. Excluded: holiday pay, overtime and benefits.
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.
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How this level compares
Where Dawson 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 | $33,280 | $68,140 | $163,619 | 1549 |
| County | $35,000 | $63,565 | $132,263 | 516 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,166 | $110,916 | 145 |
| 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 $5,400 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,900 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,300 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Dawson County starts at $53,445, so $10,120 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Dawson County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Dawson County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $53,445 a year, about $25.69 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 Dawson County Sheriff's Office, Answer the Call: Uniform Patrol Officers - "Certified with No Experience Starting Salary $53,445", "13 Paid Holidays", "Experienced Officers Pay to be Determined"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Georgia?
It ranks #55 of 80 agencies we have verified in Georgia — 25 pay less, 54 pay more in the state — and #1,943 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $13,240 below, and against other county agencies $10,115 below.
Compare with another department
Put Dawson 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 GA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Dawson | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chamblee Police Department | Municipal | 68 | $73,733 | +$20,288 | #729 |
| 2 | Sandy Springs Police Department | Municipal | 149 | $71,686 | +$18,241 | #836 |
| 3 | Georgia Bureau of Investigation | State | 338 | $64,977 | +$11,532 | #1,265 |
| 4 | Duluth Police Department | Municipal | 57 | $64,755 | +$11,310 | #1,279 |
| 5 | Garden City Police Department | Municipal | 35 | $64,072 | +$10,627 | #1,314 |
| 6 | Georgia State Patrol | State | — | $63,684 | +$10,239 | #1,336 |
| 7 | South Fulton Police Department | Municipal | 213 | $63,440 | +$9,995 | #1,354 |
| 8 | Hall County Sheriff's Office | County | 283 | $63,365 | +$9,920 | #1,359 |
| 9 | Roswell Police Department | Municipal | 154 | $62,462 | +$9,017 | #1,413 |
| 10 | Dunwoody Police Department | Municipal | 66 | $62,301 | +$8,856 | #1,428 |
| 11 | Savannah Police Department | Municipal | 425 | $61,989 | +$8,544 | #1,450 |
| 12 | Alpharetta Police Department | Municipal | 105 | $61,100 | +$7,655 | #1,495 |
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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