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Trinity 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.
Trinity County Sheriff's Office starts at $53,422 a year — about $25.68 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $13,262 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $10,137 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in California run about 11% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $48,250 somewhere at average prices — $5,172 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 159 against a national average of 100, where goods are 106. 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.
How big the department isTrinity County Sheriff's Office reported 31 sworn officers and 3 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 Trinity County says about itself
The Trinity County Sheriff's Office is committed to providing quality law enforcement with an emphasis on integrity, professionalism, and community service.
What Trinity County does
The Trinity County Sheriff's Office polices a mountainous, almost entirely unincorporated county in California's far north from Weaverville, and holds the coroner's function. The County prices its sworn deputies on a seven-step range table with no cadet or recruit class beneath them, hiring at Deputy Sheriff I before the Basic POST Academy and requiring the certificate within a year, and its current agreement with the Deputy Sheriff's Association provides no salary increase during its term. The Sheriff may place a new sworn hire at any step from A to E.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 21 September 2026. County of Trinity, Classifications and Salary Schedule — Exhibit A(3), the alphabetical listing of classifications "REVISED by the Board of Supervisors on 06/03/2025 to be effective 05/01/2025", assigns "DEPUTY SHERIFF I S135"; Exhibit B(4), the Deputy Sheriffs' Association range table, prices it "S135 A 53,422.43 4,451.87 25.68386" under the headings "Range Step Annual Sal. Monthly Sal. Hourly Rate". — open the source document
$53,422.43 is the County's OWN annual figure for range S135 step A; the same line prints $4,451.87 a month and $25.68386 an hour, and no arithmetic has been applied to any of it. THE RANGE TABLE IS STAMPED "Last Updated 6/1/22" AGAINST A CLASSIFICATION LIST EFFECTIVE 1 MAY 2025, AND THAT IS NOT A STALE DOCUMENT - IT IS A RATE THAT HAS NOT MOVED. THREE OF THE COUNTY'S OWN SOURCES SAY SO. First, the current agreement: the Master Memorandum of Understanding between the County of Trinity and the Trinity County Deputy Sheriff's Association, County Contract No. 25-160, running 1 November 2025 to 31 October 2026, Article IV Section 2 - "Salary Increases: No salary increases will be provided during the term of this agreement", and "The salary in effect on October 31, 2026, shall continue in effect without any increases after that date until modified by an amendment to this Agreement". Second, the County's live class specification library prices Deputy Sheriff I, class code S135, at "$4,451.87 - $5,965.92 Monthly" - the same step A and step G to the cent. Third, every S-range table in the schedule carries the same 6/1/22 stamp, so this is the unit's whole table and not one page left behind. THERE IS NO CADET, RECRUIT OR TRAINEE CLASS ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTY'S CLASSIFICATION LIST, and Deputy Sheriff I is the lowest sworn class in the Deputy Sheriffs' Association series. THE CLASS SPECIFICATION SETTLES THE GATE AND IT IS THE OPELIKA SHAPE: Deputy Sheriff I works "Under close supervision, to attend the Basic POST Academy for law enforcement training", its only special requirement is that "An incumbent must obtain a Basic Post Certificate within one year of initial employment", and prior experience is expressly optional - "Some previous professional law enforcement work experience or completion of advanced education in criminal justice is highly desirable". So the County hires into this class before the academy and pays this rate from day one. THE SHERIFF MAY PLACE A NEW HIRE HIGHER AND THAT IS NAMED RATHER THAN HIDDEN: MOU Article IX Section 3 gives the Sheriff "the authority to determine the step, from A through E, at which any sworn employee covered by this Association is placed upon initial hire". Step A remains the published floor of the range and is the figure. Excluded: the six steps above, topping out at $71,591.07; Deputy Sheriff II at range S145 and Deputy Sheriff III at S155; the separate CORRECTIONAL DEPUTY SHERIFF/DISPATCHER I-III custody series; and the certificate and assignment premiums of 5 per cent each, which the MOU caps at 15 per cent above base.
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 Trinity 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. Trinity County starts at $53,422, so $10,143 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Trinity County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Trinity County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $53,422 a year, about $25.68 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 County of Trinity, Classifications and Salary Schedule — Exhibit A(3), the alphabetical listing of classifications "REVISED by the Board of Supervisors on 06/03/2025 to be effective 05/01/2025", assigns "DEPUTY SHERIFF I S135"; Exhibit B(4), the Deputy Sheriffs' Association range table, prices it "S135 A 53,422.43 4,451.87 25.68386" under the headings "Range Step Annual Sal. Monthly Sal. Hourly Rate"..
Is that good pay for a police officer in California?
It ranks #276 of 278 agencies we have verified in California — 2 pay less, 275 pay more in the state — and #1,945 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $13,262 below, and against other county agencies $10,137 below.
Compare with another department
Put Trinity 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 CA
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Trinity | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Santa Clara Police Department | Municipal | 141 | $163,619 | +$110,197 | #1 |
| 2 | Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety | Municipal | 227 | $149,443 | +$96,021 | #2 |
| 3 | Redwood City Police Department | Municipal | 83 | $147,942 | +$94,520 | #3 |
| 4 | San Jose Police Department | Municipal | 1,065 | $144,003 | +$90,581 | #4 |
| 5 | Mountain View Police Department | Municipal | 90 | $143,096 | +$89,674 | #5 |
| 6 | San Mateo Police Department | Municipal | 111 | $141,024 | +$87,602 | #6 |
| 7 | Los Altos Police Department | Municipal | 31 | $139,740 | +$86,317 | #7 |
| 8 | Hayward Police Department | Municipal | 171 | $138,965 | +$85,542 | #8 |
| 9 | Milpitas Police Department | Municipal | 84 | $138,261 | +$84,838 | #9 |
| 10 | Los Gatos Police Department | Municipal | 34 | $132,394 | +$78,971 | #10 |
| 11 | Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office | County | 1,071 | $132,263 | +$78,841 | #11 |
| 12 | Menlo Park Police Department | Municipal | 43 | $132,036 | +$78,614 | #12 |
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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