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Tuscaloosa 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.
Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office starts at $51,888 a year — about $24.95 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $14,797 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $11,672 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Tuscaloosa, AL run about 12% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $59,150 would somewhere at average prices — $7,262 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 58 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 isTuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office reported 112 sworn officers and 127 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 Tuscaloosa County says about itself
It is the mission of the Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office, to operate with honor and integrity, protect individual liberties, reduce crime, and relentlessly pursue transgressors of the law with the highest level of professionalism, accountability, and leadership.
What Tuscaloosa County does
Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office patrols approximately 1,340 square miles in Alabama's second largest county, which has the most road mileage of any county in the state. Its patrol division works four sectors with an enhanced resident deputy programme, and deputies work 12-hour shifts running seven to seven, each shift split into an A and a B rotation under a sergeant and a lieutenant. Domestic violence and alarm calls are its most common patrol work. The office runs an assigned vehicle programme so deputies can respond to emergencies from home, a selected traffic enforcement unit on four Harley-Davidson motorcycles, a court transport unit serving the district and circuit courts, and a Technical Services Group holding tactical, aviation, K-9, explosive ordnance disposal and crime suppression units. Its own shooting range and training facility sits in north Tuscaloosa County.
Shifts at Tuscaloosa County
Tuscaloosa County deputies work 12-hour shifts running from 7 to 7, with each shift split into an A and a B rotation under a sergeant and lieutenant.
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.
An A and B rotation on a 7-to-7 tour is two different calendars inside one department. BlueShifts builds the one you actually work, and counts the hours as they fall.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 9 August 2026. Tuscaloosa County Personnel Department Deputy Sheriff class and pay range — open the source document
$24.95-$37.82/hour; the minimum annualised at 2,080 hours is $51,888.00. The class is a working Deputy Sheriff serving a probationary period, not an academy or trainee class. Hiring runs through the county Civil Service Board established by Act 357 of the Alabama Legislature 1949.
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.
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 this level compares
Where Tuscaloosa 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. Tuscaloosa County starts at $51,888, so $11,677 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $51,888 a year, about $24.95 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 Tuscaloosa County Personnel Department Deputy Sheriff class and pay range.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Alabama?
It ranks #13 of 35 agencies we have verified in Alabama — 22 pay less, 12 pay more in the state — and #1,997 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $14,797 below, and against other county agencies $11,672 below.
What shifts do Tuscaloosa County Sheriff's Office officers work?
Tuscaloosa County deputies work 12-hour shifts running from 7 to 7, with each shift split into an A and a B rotation under a sergeant and lieutenant. That is the agency's own published wording; the pattern is drawn on this page.
Compare with another department
Put Tuscaloosa 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 AL
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Tuscaloosa | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hoover Police Department | Municipal | 178 | $62,920 | +$11,032 | #1,390 |
| 2 | Madison Police Department | Municipal | 88 | $60,195 | +$8,307 | #1,550 |
| 3 | Birmingham Police Department | Municipal | 755 | $59,862 | +$7,974 | #1,588 |
| 4 | Auburn Police Department | Municipal | 131 | $58,798 | +$6,910 | #1,642 |
| 5 | Huntsville Police Department | Municipal | 432 | $58,614 | +$6,726 | #1,649 |
| 6 | Opelika Police Department | Municipal | 103 | $58,217 | +$6,329 | #1,663 |
| 7 | Shelby County Sheriff's Office | County | 147 | $57,408 | +$5,520 | #1,735 |
| 8 | Tuscaloosa Police Department | Municipal | 241 | $57,325 | +$5,437 | #1,740 |
| 9 | Alabama Highway Patrol | State | — | $56,726 | +$4,838 | #1,763 |
| 10 | Madison County Sheriff's Office | County | 184 | $55,390 | +$3,502 | #1,828 |
| 11 | Montgomery Police Department | Municipal | 259 | $55,168 | +$3,280 | #1,839 |
| 12 | Baldwin County Sheriff's Office | County | 174 | $53,768 | +$1,880 | #1,921 |
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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