Habersham County Sheriff's Office entry pay

What Habersham County says about itself

The Habersham County Sheriff's Office is a diverse organization of more than 100 professional men and women. Covering 279 square miles, seven municipalities, and a busy highway system, the Sheriff's Office works with other law enforcement agencies to protect the lives and property of each resident and visitor.

What Habersham County does

The Habersham County Sheriff's Office polices the north-east Georgia county at the foot of the Blue Ridge, from Clarkesville, with more than a hundred sworn and civilian staff across 279 square miles and seven municipalities. Its Uniform Patrol Division takes the first call everywhere outside the city limits - proactive patrol, traffic enforcement, accident investigation, funeral escorts and general calls for service - and works in four watches, A to D, each under a lieutenant as watch commander. Beside patrol the office runs criminal investigations, narcotics, court services, code enforcement, a special response team, a training division and the jail at Detention Drive, and puts school resource officers and the C.H.A.M.P.S. and Explorer programmes into the county's schools. It holds Georgia state certification.

Where the figure comes from

Checked 22 September 2026. Habersham County Sheriff's Office, Join the HCSO team, under Salary: "Starting Salary for a Deputy Sheriff is $24.10/Hour. Starting salary commensurate upon applicable experience." The line above it reads "Starting Salary for a Detention Officer is $20.96/Hour." — open the source document
$50,128.00 is $24.10 an hour x 2,080. THE OFFICE PRICES HOURLY AND STATES NO ANNUAL AND NO PAY PERIOD, so the multiplication is mine and 2,080 is the roster's standard divisor. UNLIKE SPALDING AND RICHMOND, HABERSHAM PUBLISHES NOTHING THAT WOULD FIX A LONGER YEAR - no 84-hour period, no overtime threshold, no tour length anywhere on the site - so 2,080 is not merely the convention here, it is the only defensible number. TWO STARTING RATES ARE PUBLISHED AND THE OFFICE'S OWN WORDS SEPARATE THEM: the page opens "Whether you are seeking a position as a sworn deputy sheriff or as a deputy jailer", so the $20.96 detention rate is the jail class and out, and $24.10 is the sworn one. NOTHING SITS BELOW THE DEPUTY RATE. There is no cadet, recruit or non-certified deputy line, and the requirement list is the same for both posts - citizenship, eighteen or older, a Georgia license, a diploma, no felony or domestic violence conviction, a drug screen - with no certification requirement stated for either, so academy status does not touch the rate. THE ONE QUALIFIER IS ABOUT EXPERIENCE AND IT POINTS THE RIGHT WAY: "Starting salary commensurate upon applicable experience" means prior service buys ABOVE this figure, which makes $24.10 the rate for a deputy with none. Excluded: paid vacation, holidays and sick leave, which is all the page offers beside the rate.
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 Habersham 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 Habersham County Sheriff's Office officer make?

Habersham County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $50,128 a year, about $24.10 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 Habersham County Sheriff's Office, Join the HCSO team, under Salary: "Starting Salary for a Deputy Sheriff is $24.10/Hour. Starting salary commensurate upon applicable experience." The line above it reads "Starting Salary for a Detention Officer is $20.96/Hour.".

Is that good pay for a police officer in Georgia?

It ranks #69 of 80 agencies we have verified in Georgia — 11 pay less, 68 pay more in the state — and #2,071 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $16,557 below, and against other county agencies $13,432 below.

The agencies either side of it