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Fayette 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.
Fayette County Sheriff's Office starts at $56,382 a year — about $27.11 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,303 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $7,177 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 $58,553 would somewhere at average prices — $2,171 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 isFayette County Sheriff's Office reported 147 sworn officers and 79 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 Fayette County says about itself
The Fayette County Sheriff's Office is a professional, full-service Law Enforcement agency dedicated to serving the needs of the citizens of Fayette County.
What Fayette County does
The Fayette County Sheriff's Office polices the county on Atlanta's south side, from Fayetteville, around Peachtree City and Tyrone. It is built as five divisions - Field Operations, Criminal Investigations, Special Operations, the Jail and Support Services - and Field Operations is the part the public meets: Uniform Patrol, which the office calls "the core - some might even call them the backbone - of the Sheriff's Office", together with Court Services at the Fayette County Justice Center and the civil process unit. Uniform Patrol runs four shifts, each under a lieutenant, a sergeant and a corporal, on twelve-hour rotations. The office runs its own training academy and teaches the Georgia Basic Law Enforcement Training Course there, so it can take uncertified recruits and certify them itself. Specialty assignments include K-9, drone, SWAT, crisis negotiation and field training.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 22 September 2026. Fayette County Sheriff's Office, Hiring, under Salary & Pay Incentives: "The starting salary for a Deputy Sheriff is $56,382.15, and Detention Officers begin at $51,079.45." The same section adds that the starting salaries "can include additional compensation of up to 10% for experience or education". — open the source document
$56,382.15 is printed as an annual by the office and needs no conversion. ONE DEPUTY RATE, NOT TWO, AND IT COVERS THE UNCERTIFIED. Fayette hires both and says so on the same page - its aptitude test carries separate exemptions for "non-certified Deputy Sheriff and Detention Officer Applicants" and for "Certified Deputy Sheriff Applicants with Georgia POST Basic Law Enforcement Certification" - and it publishes ONE starting salary for the class. It can do that because it runs its own academy: "The Training Staff teaches the Basic Law Enforcement Training Course at the Fayette County Sheriff's Office Training Center", and candidates may take pre-mandate training first. So there is no pre-academy wage here to bar; this is the Cobb and Columbia shape rather than the Douglas one. THE 10% IS AN ADDITION AND IS EXCLUDED, and the office's own list of what earns it is the entry test in reverse: "prior years of law enforcement or military experience", collegiate degrees, further P.O.S.T. certifications, and SWAT, K-9 or FTO training. Prior sworn service therefore buys a percentage on top of this number rather than a different starting number, which makes $56,382.15 the figure for a deputy with none. The detention line, $51,079.45, is the jail class and is out - detention officers complete the Basic Jail Officer Certification Course, not the law enforcement one. Also excluded: the take-home car for qualified positions, the gym, and overtime.
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 Fayette 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. Fayette County starts at $56,382, so $7,183 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Fayette County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Fayette County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $56,382 a year, about $27.11 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 Fayette County Sheriff's Office, Hiring, under Salary & Pay Incentives: "The starting salary for a Deputy Sheriff is $56,382.15, and Detention Officers begin at $51,079.45." The same section adds that the starting salaries "can include additional compensation of up to 10% for experience or education"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in Georgia?
It ranks #36 of 80 agencies we have verified in Georgia — 44 pay less, 35 pay more in the state — and #1,779 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,303 below, and against other county agencies $7,177 below.
Compare with another department
Put Fayette 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 Fayette | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chamblee Police Department | Municipal | 68 | $73,733 | +$17,351 | #729 |
| 2 | Sandy Springs Police Department | Municipal | 149 | $71,686 | +$15,304 | #836 |
| 3 | Georgia Bureau of Investigation | State | 338 | $64,977 | +$8,594 | #1,265 |
| 4 | Duluth Police Department | Municipal | 57 | $64,755 | +$8,373 | #1,279 |
| 5 | Garden City Police Department | Municipal | 35 | $64,072 | +$7,690 | #1,314 |
| 6 | Georgia State Patrol | State | — | $63,684 | +$7,302 | #1,336 |
| 7 | South Fulton Police Department | Municipal | 213 | $63,440 | +$7,058 | #1,354 |
| 8 | Hall County Sheriff's Office | County | 283 | $63,365 | +$6,983 | #1,359 |
| 9 | Roswell Police Department | Municipal | 154 | $62,462 | +$6,080 | #1,413 |
| 10 | Dunwoody Police Department | Municipal | 66 | $62,301 | +$5,919 | #1,428 |
| 11 | Savannah Police Department | Municipal | 425 | $61,989 | +$5,607 | #1,450 |
| 12 | Alpharetta Police Department | Municipal | 105 | $61,100 | +$4,718 | #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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