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Lassen 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.
Lassen County Sheriff's Office starts at $53,734 a year — about $25.83 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $12,951 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $9,826 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $48,531 somewhere at average prices — $5,203 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 159 against a national average of 100, where goods are 106. 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 isLassen County Sheriff's Office reported 49 sworn officers and 23 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 Lassen County says about itself
The Sheriff is responsible for a wide range of public safety services; including the prevention, detection and investigation of crimes in the unincorporated areas of the County, operating a 24 hour Adult Detention Facility (Jail), managing a 911 dispatch center, providing search and rescue services, providing boating safety services on navigable waters, providing court security services, serving all State mandated writs, warrants, and other notices issued by the Court, and serving as the Coroner of Lassen County.
What Lassen County does
The Lassen County Sheriff's Office polices the unincorporated north-eastern California county from Susanville and is also the Coroner, running a 24-hour adult detention facility of 156 rated beds, the county's 911 dispatch center, search and rescue, boating safety and court security. Its deputies are represented by the Deputy Sheriff's Association on a seven-step schedule that prices a separate Deputy Sheriff Recruit class two ranges beneath the sworn Deputy Sheriff-Coroner I, and pays longevity as a percentage premium outside the ladder at seven, ten and fifteen years.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. COUNTY OF LASSEN, SCHEDULE OF CLASSES, SALARY RANGES, AND STEPS, "EFFECTIVE January 4, 2026, (3.1% Increase-per Annual Avg CPI Jan-Dec 2024)", Board Approved January 13, 2026 — "Deputy Sheriff-Coroner I DSA 17 25.8336 ... 2,066.69", Step A hourly and bi-weekly. — open the source document
$53,733.94 is the County's Step A bi-weekly figure, $2,066.69, at twenty-six pay periods; the same row prints $25.8336 an hour, which at 2,080 hours gives $53,733.89, five cents apart, so the two forms agree and the annualisation is not doing any work. THE RECRUIT CLASS IS ON THE SAME PAGE, TWO RANGES BELOW, AND IS NOT THE FIGURE: "Deputy Sheriff - Recruit DSA 15 23.5806 24.6796 25.8336 ...", its ladder the deputy ladder shifted down two rungs so that the recruit's Step C is the deputy's Step A. THE STEPS ABOVE ARE TIME AND MERIT, NOT CERTIFICATION, and longevity sits outside the ladder entirely, as a percentage premium the schedule prices separately - "Solely based on length of service with agency", 2.5 per cent at seven years, a further 2.5 at ten and a further 5 at fifteen, "paid on percentage of bases pay" and "not compounded". Excluded from the figure: the six steps above Step A, topping out at $34.0748 an hour; Deputy Sheriff-Coroner II at range 19; District Attorney Investigator at range 20, which is not a Sheriff's class; and every longevity premium. THE SCHEDULE NAMES ITS OWN AUTHORITY AND ITS OWN ARITHMETIC: it is the Deputy Sheriff's Association memorandum of understanding dated 8 April 2025 to 31 December 2026, revised 13 January 2026 by Board resolution, and the 3.1 per cent is the annual average CPI for January to December 2024. DOMAIN CORRECTION WORTH KEEPING: lassencounty.org now redirects to LASSENCOUNTY.GOV and the old department paths are dead.
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 Lassen 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. Lassen County starts at $53,734, so $9,831 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Lassen County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Lassen County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $53,734 a year, about $25.83 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 COUNTY OF LASSEN, SCHEDULE OF CLASSES, SALARY RANGES, AND STEPS, "EFFECTIVE January 4, 2026, (3.1% Increase-per Annual Avg CPI Jan-Dec 2024)", Board Approved January 13, 2026 — "Deputy Sheriff-Coroner I DSA 17 25.8336 ... 2,066.69", Step A hourly and bi-weekly..
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #275 of 278 agencies we have verified in California — 3 pay less, 274 pay more in the state — and #1,926 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $12,951 below, and against other county agencies $9,826 below.
Compare with another department
Put Lassen 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 CA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Lassen | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$109,885 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$95,709 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$94,208 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$90,269 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$89,362 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$87,290 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$86,006 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$85,231 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$84,527 | #9 |
| 10 | Los Gatos Police Department | Municipal | 34 | $132,394 | +$78,660 | #10 |
| 11 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$78,529 | #11 |
| 12 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$78,302 | #12 |
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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