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Lincoln 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.
Lincoln County Sheriff's Office starts at $60,757 a year — about $29.21 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $5,928 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $2,803 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in New Mexico run about 8% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $65,888 would somewhere at average prices — $5,131 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 74 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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.
What Lincoln County says about itself
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Department and Deputies are committed to working with the citizens of Lincoln County to fight crime and improve the quality of life for the people of Lincoln County.
What Lincoln County does
The Lincoln County Sheriff's Office polices 4,859 square miles of south-central New Mexico from Carrizozo, covering Ruidoso, Ruidoso Downs, Capitan, Lincoln, the Hondo Valley, White Oaks and Corona, with a county population of about 20,500. Sheriff Michael Wood was elected for the term running January 2025 to December 2028. The office takes both certified and uncertified applicants, sending uncertified hires to the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy, and its rank ladder from Deputy through Deputy I, II and III is built on advanced training hours as much as years of service. Alongside deputies it employs its own dispatchers and a legal process server who also handles animal control, and it runs the county's sex offender registry search. Its longevity pay is unusual in being conditioned on an annual fitness standard test rather than service alone.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 September 2026. Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff's Deputy vacancy — UNCERTIFIED DEPUTY PAY, new hire with no experience — open the source document
Read 10 September 2026 from the County's own site. The office publishes the whole ladder in its own words and names the entry line without ambiguity: UNCERTIFIED DEPUTY PAY, new hire - no experience, $29.21 an hour. From there, CERTIFIED DEPUTY PAY on completing the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy $30.09; Deputy I, at 100 hours of advanced training and two years' experience, $33.47; Deputy II, 250 hours and four years, $36.84; Deputy III, 500 hours and five years, $40.22, which is also the top of the advertised DOE range. THE ENTRY TEST IS SETTLED BY THE LABEL ITSELF - the figure is the rate for a new hire with no experience and no certification, and every rate above it is conditioned on academy completion, training hours and years of service. The annual is the hourly rate over 2,080 hours; the office publishes hourly rates and no annual one. Excluded: the longevity, experience and physical fitness incentive, which runs from $1,950 a year on beginning year three to $20,800 at 22 years and more, is earned only through unbroken consecutive service with this office, must be re-earned each year by passing the fitness standard test, and restarts from zero after a break in service.
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 Lincoln 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. Lincoln County starts at $60,757, so $2,808 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Lincoln County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Lincoln County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $60,757 a year, about $29.21 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 Lincoln County Sheriff's Office, Sheriff's Deputy vacancy — UNCERTIFIED DEPUTY PAY, new hire with no experience.
Is that good pay for a police officer in New Mexico?
It ranks #9 of 22 agencies we have verified in New Mexico — 13 pay less, 8 pay more in the state — and #1,520 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $5,928 below, and against other county agencies $2,803 below.
Compare with another department
Put Lincoln 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 NM
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Lincoln | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Fe Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,046 | +$14,290 | #674 |
| 2 | New Mexico State Police | State | 1,174 | $70,845 | +$10,088 | #891 |
| 3 | Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office | County | 141 | $68,318 | +$7,561 | #1,032 |
| 4 | Farmington Police Department | Municipal | 119 | $66,102 | +$5,345 | #1,179 |
| 5 | Albuquerque Police Department | Municipal | 966 | $65,499 | +$4,742 | #1,220 |
| 6 | San Juan County Sheriff's Office | County | 86 | $63,045 | +$2,288 | #1,381 |
| 7 | Las Vegas Police Department | Municipal | 27 | $62,400 | +$1,643 | #1,424 |
| 8 | Valencia County Sheriff's Office | County | 48 | $62,150 | +$1,394 | #1,439 |
| 10 | Carlsbad Police Department | Municipal | 57 | $59,842 | −$915 | #1,589 |
| 11 | McKinley County Sheriff's Office | County | 37 | $59,675 | −$1,082 | #1,598 |
| 12 | Los Lunas Police Department | Municipal | — | $59,212 | −$1,545 | #1,620 |
| 13 | Belen Police Department | Municipal | — | $57,845 | −$2,912 | #1,696 |
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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