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Edmunds 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.
Edmunds County Sheriff's Office starts at $58,136 a year — about $27.95 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $9,131 below the median of the 2,053 agencies on this list, and $6,302 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in South Dakota run about 11% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $65,627 would somewhere at average prices — $7,491 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 68 against a national average of 100, where goods are 95. 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 isEdmunds County Sheriff's Office reported 8 sworn officers and 7 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.
About Edmunds County
The Edmunds County Sheriff's Office polices Edmunds County in north-central South Dakota, 1,151 square miles of rolling farmland with about 4,000 people, from the courthouse at 210 2nd Avenue in Ipswich. The Sheriff is Jonathan Waldner, working with a chief deputy who also serves as county coroner, a small deputy establishment and its own dispatchers, and the office is available 24 hours a day. Edmunds County houses its adult inmates in the Beadle County Jail at a contracted daily rate and its juveniles at the Beadle County juvenile detention center, and a new law enforcement center has been in design.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 September 2026. Edmunds County Commission — 2026 salaries for officers and employees adopted at the reorganization meeting of 6 January 2026, read with the pay resolution of 20 May 2025 that names the deputies individually — open the source document
Read 8 September 2026 from the County's own reorganization papers. Edmunds pays its deputies a SINGLE FLAT RANK RATE rather than a spread, so the rank rate is the entry rate: the 2026 salary list prices Cody Peterson, Daniel Braun, Bryan Warner and Andrea Carlson at $27.95 an hour each, with Chief Deputy Kyle Couchey above them at $31.72 and Sheriff Jonathan Waldner salaried at $69,630. $27.95 x 2,080 = $58,136.00. The ranks are identified from the County's own documents rather than guessed: the minutes of 20 May 2025 moved 'to change the pay of the Sheriff's Deputies from salary to hourly, in accordance with the Fair Labor Standards Act, at an hourly rate of: Daniel Braun - $27.20, Kyle Couchey - $30.97, Peter Eng - $27.20, and Cody Peterson - $27.20', and the County's own dispatcher advertisement names Couchey as Chief Deputy. The 2026 rates reconcile exactly to those through the straight-across raise the same reorganization paper records - $27.20 plus $0.75 is $27.95, and $30.97 plus $0.75 is $31.72. Part-time deputies are paid $25.90 and are excluded, as are the temporary deputies the county hires at $40.00 an hour for Ipswich Trail Days.
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 Edmunds 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 | $68,786 | $163,619 | 1372 |
| County | $35,000 | $64,438 | $132,263 | 459 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,204 | $107,954 | 71 |
| State | $33,994 | $65,400 | $110,916 | 144 |
| 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 $4,700 more than the middle municipal agency and about $9,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,100 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. Edmunds County starts at $58,136, so $6,302 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Edmunds County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Edmunds County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $58,136 a year, about $27.95 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 Edmunds County Commission — 2026 salaries for officers and employees adopted at the reorganization meeting of 6 January 2026, read with the pay resolution of 20 May 2025 that names the deputies individually.
Is that good pay for a police officer in South Dakota?
It ranks #11 of 17 agencies we have verified in South Dakota — 6 pay less, 10 pay more in the state — and #1,520 of 2,053 nationally. Against the national median it is $9,131 below, and against other county agencies $6,302 below.
Compare with another department
Put Edmunds 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 SD
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Edmunds | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sioux Falls Police Department | Municipal | 284 | $72,030 | +$13,894 | #744 |
| 2 | Rapid City Police Department | Municipal | 157 | $70,491 | +$12,355 | #835 |
| 3 | Spearfish Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $68,307 | +$10,171 | #953 |
| 4 | Pierre Police Department | Municipal | 20 | $68,307 | +$10,171 | #954 |
| 5 | Minnehaha County Sheriff's Office | County | 86 | $66,893 | +$8,757 | #1,044 |
| 6 | South Dakota Highway Patrol | State | 150 | $64,251 | +$6,115 | #1,201 |
| 7 | Mitchell Police Department | Municipal | 26 | $63,492 | +$5,356 | #1,240 |
| 8 | Pennington County Sheriff's Office | County | 217 | $63,357 | +$5,221 | #1,250 |
| 9 | Aberdeen Police Department | Municipal | 54 | $62,587 | +$4,451 | #1,291 |
| 10 | Yankton Police Department | Municipal | 30 | $58,253 | +$117 | #1,512 |
| 12 | Brown County Sheriff's Office | County | 21 | $55,578 | −$2,558 | #1,645 |
| 13 | Union County Sheriff's Office | County | 13 | $55,120 | −$3,016 | #1,670 |
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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