Home › Police pay › Iowa › Story County Sheriff's Office
Story 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.
Story County Sheriff's Office starts at $66,955 a year — about $32.19 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $1,435 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $1,581 above the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Ames, IA run about 11% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $75,375 would somewhere at average prices — $8,419 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 69 against a national average of 100, where goods are 94. 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 isStory County Sheriff's Office reported 33 sworn officers and 59 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 Story County says about itself
It is the mission of the Story County Sheriff's Office to ensure public safety through the implementation of professional and proactive law enforcement services and to build trust by maintaining the highest standards of performance, integrity, and ethics.
What Story County does
Story County's official description says Patrol Deputy Sheriffs perform law-enforcement, civil-process and crime-prevention duties. The position responds to calls, patrols the county, investigates offenses and accidents, makes arrests, serves legal process and works to protect the public.
Shifts at Story County
Eighteen deputies and three sergeants staff three shifts to cover ten contract towns and the rural areas of the county 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Twenty-one people covering ten towns round the clock leaves no slack, and deputies add hundreds of extra hours on top for event and escort duty. BlueShifts keeps the tour and the extras on one calendar.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Story County official GovernmentJobs recruitment — Deputy Sheriff — open the source document
Opened 1 May 2026; closed 28 May 2026; official salary $32.19-$42.14/hour ($66,955.20-$87,651.20 annually)
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 Story 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. Story County starts at $66,955, so $1,581 above 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 Story County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Story County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $66,955 a year, about $32.19 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 Story County official GovernmentJobs recruitment — Deputy Sheriff.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Iowa?
It ranks #19 of 28 agencies we have verified in Iowa — 9 pay less, 18 pay more in the state — and #919 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $1,435 below, and against other county agencies $1,581 above.
What shifts do Story County Sheriff's Office officers work?
Eighteen deputies and three sergeants staff three shifts to cover ten contract towns and the rural areas of the county 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Story 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 IA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Story | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iowa County Sheriff's Office | County | 14 | $85,550 | +$18,595 | #281 |
| 2 | Des Moines Police Department | Municipal | 367 | $84,635 | +$17,680 | #297 |
| 3 | Norwalk Police Department | Municipal | 22 | $76,710 | +$9,755 | #486 |
| 4 | Ankeny Police Department | Municipal | 78 | $76,648 | +$9,693 | #491 |
| 5 | Urbandale Police Department | Municipal | 58 | $76,028 | +$9,073 | #516 |
| 6 | Woodbury County Sheriff's Office | County | 44 | $73,944 | +$6,989 | #597 |
| 7 | Linn County Sheriff's Office | County | 120 | $73,216 | +$6,261 | #616 |
| 8 | Chickasaw County Sheriff's Office | County | 10 | $71,822 | +$4,867 | #678 |
| 9 | Mason City Police Department | Municipal | 40 | $71,448 | +$4,493 | #698 |
| 10 | Johnson County Sheriff's Office | County | 81 | $70,871 | +$3,916 | #732 |
| 11 | Iowa Department of Natural Resources — Conservation Law Enforcement | State | — | $70,574 | +$3,619 | #742 |
| 12 | Davenport Police Department | Municipal | 143 | $70,322 | +$3,367 | #752 |
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
