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Salt Lake 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.
Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office starts at $58,073 a year — about $27.92 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $10,317 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $7,301 below the median for county agencies.
How big the department isSalt Lake County Sheriff's Office reported 747 sworn officers and 372 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 Salt Lake County says about itself
With over 1,100 employees and volunteers, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office takes pride in its role as a leader in public safety and community service. In partnership with the community, we will provide innovative outreach, supervision and programming to safeguard our community by applying the law with compassion, professionalism, and integrity.
What Salt Lake County does
The Public Safety Bureau performs law-enforcement, prisoner-management, government-security and public-service duties. The Sheriff's Office trains new deputies through its POST academy and then a Deputy Training Program
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Join Our Team page; 2026 Sheriff's Office Public Safety Bureau Sworn Officer Pay Plan — open the source document
The Sheriff's current recruiting page states "No Experience or training needed to become hired," that the Sheriff's Office pays for POST Certification Training, and that cadets earn wages and benefits while attending the POST Academy. The 2026 Public Safety Bureau pay plan lists Deputy I, Grade 015, Step 1 at $58,073.13 annually. The academy pathway is employer-sponsored and the Deputy I figure is the first published sworn Public Safety Deputy step Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office expressly recruits Public Safety Deputies with no experience required and pays for POST certification training. The Public Safety Bureau exercises law-enforcement authority, government security, prisoner-managemen || ORI CORRECTION 21 Aug 2026: this row carried ORI UT0180000, which is NOT this agency — it belongs to the UNIFIED POLICE DEPARTMENT OF GREATER SALT LAKE, added the same day. Two rows pointed at one ORI. **The FBI LEAIC file carries Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office with ORI9 = -1, i.e. NO ORI AT ALL**, because UPD holds the county's reporting code: the Sheriff runs the jail, courts and civil process while UPD does the policing. Left blank rather than guessed. RECHECK FLAG ON THE FIGURE TOO: the Sheriff's own recruitment currently advertises **Public Safety Deputy at $27.82/hour and Corrections Deputy at $31.01/hour, both marked “NO EXPERIENCE OR TRAINING REQUIRED”** with POST certification paid for and wages paid during the academy. $27.82 x 2,080 = $57,865.60 against the $58,073 on file, so this row is close but should be re-sourced from the county's own icims posting when one is open.
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 Salt Lake 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. Salt Lake County starts at $58,073, so $7,301 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $58,073 a year, about $27.92 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 Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office Join Our Team page; 2026 Sheriff's Office Public Safety Bureau Sworn Officer Pay Plan.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Utah?
It ranks #28 of 31 agencies we have verified in Utah — 3 pay less, 27 pay more in the state — and #1,319 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $10,317 below, and against other county agencies $7,301 below.
Compare with another department
Put Salt Lake 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 UT
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Salt | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salt Lake City Police Department | Municipal | 589 | $76,315 | +$18,242 | #503 |
| 2 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,982 | +$17,909 | #518 |
| 3 | Taylorsville Police Department | Municipal | — | $75,941 | +$17,868 | #523 |
| 4 | Utah Highway Patrol | State | 536 | $75,878 | +$17,805 | #525 |
| 5 | Sandy Police Department | Municipal | — | $73,112 | +$15,039 | #621 |
| 6 | West Valley City Police Department | Municipal | — | $73,045 | +$14,972 | #625 |
| 7 | Cottonwood Heights Police Department | Municipal | — | $69,763 | +$11,690 | #785 |
| 8 | Murray City Police Department | Municipal | 82 | $68,890 | +$10,816 | #821 |
| 9 | Unified Police Department of Greater Salt Lake | Municipal | — | $68,099 | +$10,026 | #858 |
| 10 | South Salt Lake Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,997 | +$8,924 | #916 |
| 11 | Orem Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $66,768 | +$8,695 | #931 |
| 12 | Moab Police Department | Municipal | — | $66,747 | +$8,674 | #936 |
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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