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Santa Rosa 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.
Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office starts at $55,619 a year — about $26.74 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $11,066 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $7,940 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent, FL run about 2% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $56,919 would somewhere at average prices — $1,299 more than the headline figure. That average hides a wide spread: utilities at 88, 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 isSanta Rosa County Sheriff's Office reported 256 sworn officers and 238 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 Santa Rosa County says about itself
Our mission is to deliver the highest quality, constitutional policing for all of our citizens. Combined with the human element, we strive every day to maintain the highest degree of professionalism and excellence. The citizens of Santa Rosa County deserve the highest quality law enforcement available; for that reason, we hire the best, expect the best, and invest the most into our staff.
What Santa Rosa County does
Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office provides patrol, criminal investigations, detention, court-security, civil-process and specialized public-safety services. Official agency materials emphasize protecting residents and visitors, professional law enforcement, crime prevention and community service.
Shifts at Santa Rosa County
The Sheriff's Office employment page states the working pattern: full-time is 84 HOURS BIWEEKLY - seven twelve-hour days in a fourteen-day period - and "Deputies work 12 hours per day with rotating days off", with the caveat that work hours are subject to change as the needs of the agency change. A patrol vehicle is assigned to each deputy, and uniforms, duty gear, body camera and radio are issued.
The agency publishes the shift length but not a named cycle. These are the 12-hour rotations departments most often build on it: Pitman, 4 on, 4 off, DuPont, Panama, 3-4-4-3.
Eighty-four hours a fortnight on rotating days off is a schedule that pays past forty in a week by design, and the days move. BlueShifts keeps the fortnight rather than the week as the unit, so the hours and the moving days off are read off the same month - and in Florida, where off-duty details are how many deputies fill the gaps, those sit on the same screen.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Sheriff GovernmentJobs posting; <2 years experience — open the source document
$55,619.20. Opening 3/16/2026
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.
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How this level compares
Where Santa Rosa 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. Santa Rosa County starts at $55,619, so $7,946 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $55,619 a year, about $26.74 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 Sheriff GovernmentJobs posting; <2 years experience.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Florida?
It ranks #197 of 303 agencies we have verified in Florida — 106 pay less, 196 pay more in the state — and #1,812 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $11,066 below, and against other county agencies $7,940 below.
What shifts do Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office officers work?
The Sheriff's Office employment page states the working pattern: full-time is 84 HOURS BIWEEKLY - seven twelve-hour days in a fourteen-day period - and "Deputies work 12 hours per day with rotating days off", with the caveat that work hours are subject to change as the needs of the agency change. A patrol vehicle is assigned to each deputy, and uniforms, duty gear, body camera and radio are issued. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Santa Rosa 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 FL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Santa | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boca Raton Police Services Department | Municipal | 195 | $91,007 | +$35,388 | #244 |
| 2 | Fort Lauderdale Police Department | Municipal | 565 | $81,723 | +$26,104 | #433 |
| 3 | Plantation Police Department | Municipal | 164 | $81,000 | +$25,381 | #459 |
| 4 | Hillsboro Beach Police Department | Municipal | 15 | $80,954 | +$25,335 | #461 |
| 5 | Pinecrest Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $80,912 | +$25,292 | #464 |
| 6 | Sunny Isles Beach Police Department | Municipal | 65 | $80,000 | +$24,381 | #496 |
| 7 | Indian Creek Village Public Safety Department | Municipal | 10 | $79,850 | +$24,231 | #500 |
| 8 | Sunrise Police Department | Municipal | 190 | $79,071 | +$23,452 | #520 |
| 9 | Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,720 | $78,828 | +$23,209 | #526 |
| 10 | Aventura Police Department | Municipal | 91 | $78,556 | +$22,937 | #536 |
| 11 | Longboat Key Police Department | Municipal | 19 | $78,430 | +$22,811 | #543 |
| 12 | Manalapan Police Department | Municipal | 13 | $78,280 | +$22,661 | #549 |
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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