Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office entry pay

What Doña Ana County says about itself

The Sheriff's Office serves the people with the highest degree of fairness, professionalism and integrity. Each day, we work to support our communities, prepare for and respond to emergencies, disasters and provide support to other law enforcement agencies.

What Doña Ana County does

The Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office polices 3,814 square miles of southern New Mexico from Las Cruces, the county seat, covering the Mesilla Valley, the Organ Mountains and the stretch of the Rio Grande between Hatch and the Texas line. It calls itself the state's second largest department and serves 223,337 residents - everyone in the county outside the incorporated municipalities that run their own forces, Las Cruces chief among them. It dates its service from 1852, the year after the county was organised, and its deputies are organised with Communications Workers of America Local 7911. Recruits are taken in two streams: uncertified cadets, who go through a sixteen-week academy before field training, and certified laterals, placed by their completed years of service.

Where the figure comes from

Checked 22 September 2026. Doña Ana County, Sheriff CWA Pay Plan, "Effective: 7/1/2024", top block: "Hourly Annual / Uncertified 23.71 $ 49,316.80 $ / Certified Deputy 26.53 $ 55,182.40 $"; the stepped table beneath it opens "Step Deputy Hourly Annual / 1 Beginning Yr 2 27.02 $ 56,201.60 $". — open the source document
$55,182.40 is the CERTIFIED DEPUTY line, printed as an annual by the county, and the whole plan fits on one page. THREE FIGURES COMPETE AND TWO ARE BARRED. The $49,316.80 above it is the UNCERTIFIED line, and the county's own recruiting page names that path in words: it offers exactly two, "Uncertified Cadet Academy" and "Certified Lateral Deputy", and the uncertified one runs through "an intensive 16-week law enforcement academy" before the hire is a deputy at all. What ends the uncertified rate is the academy, not service, so it is a pre-POST wage and the standing rule bars it - the same test that skipped Lincoln County NV's recruit rate. The $56,201.60 below it is barred from the other side: it is Step Deputy step 1 and the county labels that step "Beginning Yr 2", so it is a year of service, not a starting rate. That leaves the middle line, and it is the right one on the lateral test too: the recruiting page prices a certified lateral at "starting pay based on completed years of service in accordance with union contract", i.e. laterals are placed up the Step Deputy column by prior service, and Certified Deputy is what is left for a sworn deputy with none. This is the Bernalillo shape exactly - cadet rate published, sworn starting class published beside it, take the sworn class. The full plan for completeness: Step Deputy 1-8 runs $56,201.60 at beginning of year 2 to $77,417.60 at beginning of year 20; Detective 1-7 runs $64,376.00 starting to $100,609.60 at beginning of year 12; Sergeant 1-6 runs $80,267.20 starting to $96,907.20 at beginning of year 10. Excluded from the figure: the academy incentives on the recruiting page, which are lump sums and not rate - a base $11,000 rising to $15,000 with an Associate's degree, $20,000 for "4yrs Honorable Active Military Service" or "Military Retirement", $25,000 for a Bachelor's, and $20,000 for a certified lateral. THE COUNTY'S FILE PATHS REDIRECT OFF ITS OWN DOMAIN: donaana.gov serves every document by 302 to cms2.revize.com, so the county URL above is the citable one and the CMS URL is where it lands.
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.

How this level compares

Where Doña Ana 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.

How it ranks

Common questions

How much does a Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office officer make?

Doña Ana County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $55,182 a year, about $26.53 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 Doña Ana County, Sheriff CWA Pay Plan, "Effective: 7/1/2024", top block: "Hourly Annual / Uncertified 23.71 $ 49,316.80 $ / Certified Deputy 26.53 $ 55,182.40 $"; the stepped table beneath it opens "Step Deputy Hourly Annual / 1 Beginning Yr 2 27.02 $ 56,201.60 $"..

Is that good pay for a police officer in New Mexico?

It ranks #15 of 22 agencies we have verified in New Mexico — 7 pay less, 14 pay more in the state — and #1,838 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $11,502 below, and against other county agencies $8,377 below.

The agencies either side of it