Home › Police pay › Georgia › Muscogee County Sheriff's Office
Muscogee 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.
Muscogee County Sheriff's Office starts at $45,450 a year — about $21.85 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $22,940 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $19,924 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Columbus, GA-AL run about 11% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $50,898 would somewhere at average prices — $5,448 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 61 against a national average of 100, where goods are 96. 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 isMuscogee County Sheriff's Office reported 193 sworn officers and 148 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 Muscogee County says about itself
It is the mission of the Muscogee County Sheriff's Office to provide quality law enforcement, jail, court security, civil services and community outreach to the citizens and visitors of Muscogee County, Georgia.
What Muscogee County does
Deputies patrol the county, execute warrants and arrests, enforce traffic laws, transport prisoners, serve civil process and testify in court
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. Columbus Consolidated Government 2026 Deputy Sheriff recruitment — open the source document
Their source is effective 16 January 2026.
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 Muscogee 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. Muscogee County starts at $45,450, so $19,924 below the county middle.
BlueShifts. Plan Your Year. Own Your Time.
The shift calendar built for your rotation, off-duty work, and life on and off the clock.
Save your shift schedule once and BlueShifts fills the rest of the year in.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Muscogee County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Muscogee County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $45,450 a year, about $21.85 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 Columbus Consolidated Government 2026 Deputy Sheriff recruitment.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Georgia?
It ranks #25 of 25 agencies we have verified in Georgia — 0 pay less, 24 pay more in the state — and #1,625 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $22,940 below, and against other county agencies $19,924 below.
Compare with another department
Put Muscogee 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 Muscogee | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sandy Springs Police Department | Municipal | 149 | $71,686 | +$26,236 | #687 |
| 2 | Georgia Bureau of Investigation | State | 338 | $64,977 | +$19,527 | #1,027 |
| 3 | Georgia State Patrol | State | — | $63,684 | +$18,234 | #1,072 |
| 4 | South Fulton Police Department | Municipal | 213 | $63,440 | +$17,990 | #1,086 |
| 5 | Roswell Police Department | Municipal | 154 | $62,462 | +$17,012 | #1,135 |
| 6 | Savannah Police Department | Municipal | 425 | $61,989 | +$16,539 | #1,156 |
| 7 | Alpharetta Police Department | Municipal | 105 | $61,100 | +$15,650 | #1,190 |
| 8 | Atlanta Police Department | Municipal | 1,817 | $60,987 | +$15,537 | #1,196 |
| 9 | Snellville Police Department | Municipal | 50 | $60,905 | +$15,455 | #1,199 |
| 10 | Fulton County Sheriff's Office | County | 349 | $60,000 | +$14,550 | #1,240 |
| 11 | Fulton County Police Department | Municipal | 349 | $60,000 | +$14,550 | #1,249 |
| 12 | Athens-Clarke County Police Department | Municipal | 235 | $59,287 | +$13,837 | #1,275 |
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.
Scan to install
