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Ingham 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.
Ingham County Sheriff's Office starts at $59,067 a year — about $28.40 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $9,323 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $6,308 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Lansing-East Lansing, MI run about 5% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $62,182 would somewhere at average prices — $3,115 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 83 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isIngham County Sheriff's Office reported 79 sworn officers and 85 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 Ingham County says about itself
Provide Correctional, Law Enforcement, and Support Service excellence in partnership with our community.
What Ingham County does
Ingham County Sheriff's Office is based in Mason, Michigan, and employs over 150 sworn officers and civilians across three divisions — Staff Services, Field Services and Corrections — each subdivided into specialised teams, with a separate Civil Division in Delhi Township. It provides contract police services to Delhi Charter Township through its Delhi Division on Cedar Street, and takes part in the Ingham Regional Crash Investigation Team, which investigates serious collisions across the county and presents its cases to the county prosecutor. The office is a member of the Michigan Sheriffs' Association, founded in 1877 and the oldest law enforcement organisation in the state.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Ingham County official GovernmentJobs posting — Field Services Deputy - Sheriff Department — open the source document
Opening 12 March 2026; official annual minimum $59,066.86; prior law-enforcement experience preferred rather than required; current MCOLES eligibility/certification requirement applies
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 Ingham 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. Ingham County starts at $59,067, so $6,307 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Ingham County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Ingham County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $59,067 a year, about $28.40 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 Ingham County official GovernmentJobs posting — Field Services Deputy - Sheriff Department.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Michigan?
It ranks #25 of 38 agencies we have verified in Michigan — 13 pay less, 24 pay more in the state — and #1,281 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $9,323 below, and against other county agencies $6,308 below.
Compare with another department
Put Ingham 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 MI
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Ingham | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Troy Police Department | Municipal | 110 | $78,224 | +$19,157 | #452 |
| 2 | Grand Rapids Police Department | Municipal | 299 | $77,467 | +$18,400 | #471 |
| 3 | Wyoming Police Department | Municipal | 97 | $75,400 | +$16,333 | #539 |
| 4 | Sumpter Township Police Department | Municipal | 18 | $71,732 | +$12,665 | #684 |
| 5 | Lincoln Charter Township Police Department | Municipal | — | $71,696 | +$12,629 | #686 |
| 6 | Macomb County Sheriff's Office | County | 274 | $71,098 | +$12,031 | #718 |
| 7 | Muskegon Police Department | Municipal | 70 | $69,888 | +$10,821 | #781 |
| 8 | Livonia Police Department | Municipal | 117 | $69,784 | +$10,717 | #783 |
| 9 | Dearborn Police Department | Municipal | 186 | $69,080 | +$10,013 | #810 |
| 10 | Plymouth Township Police Department | Municipal | 33 | $68,140 | +$9,073 | #852 |
| 11 | Oscoda Township Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $68,140 | +$9,073 | #853 |
| 12 | Northville Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $65,956 | +$6,889 | #969 |
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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