Home › Police pay › New York › Erie County Sheriff's Office
Erie 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.
Erie County Sheriff's Office starts at $69,274 a year — about $33.30 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $884 above the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $3,900 above the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY run about 4% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $72,278 would somewhere at average prices — $3,004 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 129 against a national average of 100, where goods are 100. Based on price levels for this metropolitan 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 isErie County Sheriff's Office reported 175 sworn officers and 153 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 Erie County says about itself
To provide quality public safety services to our community by promoting a safe environment through police and citizen interaction, with an emphasis on integrity, fairness, and professionalism.
What Erie County does
Erie County Sheriff's Office says it is responsible for maintaining the peace throughout the county and for the care and custody of persons pending court action. Its Police Services Division performs law enforcement, traffic enforcement, crime prevention and public service, while other divisions provide jail management, civil enforcement, special operations and support services. Its 2026 fact sheet states its mission is to provide quality public-safety services through police and citizen interaction with integrity, fairness and professionalism.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Erie County Department of Personnel — Deputy Sheriff - Criminal open competitive examination — open the source document
Opened 2 July 2026; applications through 2 September 2026; examination 17 October 2026; official salary $69,274 annually; appointments from the open competitive examination are anticipated
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 Erie 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. Erie County starts at $69,274, so $3,900 above the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Erie County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Erie County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $69,274 a year, about $33.30 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 Erie County Department of Personnel — Deputy Sheriff - Criminal open competitive examination.
Is that good pay for a police officer in New York?
It ranks #6 of 23 agencies we have verified in New York — 17 pay less, 5 pay more in the state — and #800 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $884 above, and against other county agencies $3,900 above.
Compare with another department
Put Erie 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 NY
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Erie | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York State Department of Financial Services — Investigations | State | — | $86,681 | +$17,407 | #269 |
| 2 | New York State Police | State | 5,373 | $85,292 | +$16,018 | #288 |
| 3 | New York State Park Police | State | 269 | $73,796 | +$4,522 | #602 |
| 4 | Onondaga County Sheriff's Office | County | 217 | $71,764 | +$2,490 | #681 |
| 5 | Yonkers Police Department | Municipal | 625 | $70,229 | +$955 | #755 |
| 7 | Livingston County Sheriff's Office | County | 66 | $67,808 | −$1,466 | #871 |
| 8 | New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers | State | — | $67,796 | −$1,478 | #872 |
| 9 | Yates County Sheriff's Office | County | 27 | $66,389 | −$2,885 | #956 |
| 10 | Albany Police Department | Municipal | 269 | $65,066 | −$4,208 | #1,017 |
| 11 | Rochester Police Department | Municipal | 622 | $63,812 | −$5,462 | #1,068 |
| 12 | Nassau County Sheriff's Department | County | 2,591 | $62,657 | −$6,617 | #1,123 |
| 13 | Monroe County Sheriff's Office | County | 346 | $62,086 | −$7,188 | #1,153 |
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.
Scan to install
