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Valley 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.
Valley County Sheriff's Office starts at $57,762 a year — about $27.77 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $8,923 below the median of the 2,288 agencies on this list, and $5,798 below the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in rural Idaho run about 8% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $62,877 would somewhere at average prices — $5,116 more than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 70 against a national average of 100, where goods are 97. Based on price levels for the non-metropolitan part of this state, because this agency is outside every 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 isValley County Sheriff's Office reported 22 sworn officers and 27 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 Valley County says about itself
The mission of the Valley County Sheriff’s Office is to consistently contribute to our community’s reputation as a safe place to live, work and play. We accomplish our mission by providing the highest quality law enforcement, detention, community information and administrative services possible with the resources provided to us.
What Valley County does
Valley County Sheriff's Office says its mission is to consistently contribute to the community's reputation as a safe place to live, work and play. It seeks to accomplish that mission through high-quality law-enforcement, detention, community-information and administrative services and strives to be professional, responsive, caring and a good steward of public resources.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. Valley County official GovernmentJobs posting — Patrol Deputy — open the source document
Opening 26 January 2026; closing Continuous; $27.77/hour minimum annualized at 2,080 hours
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 Valley 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. Valley County starts at $57,762, so $5,803 below the county middle.
How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Valley County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Valley County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $57,762 a year, about $27.77 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 Valley County official GovernmentJobs posting — Patrol Deputy.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Idaho?
It ranks #23 of 54 agencies we have verified in Idaho — 31 pay less, 22 pay more in the state — and #1,705 of 2,288 nationally. Against the national median it is $8,923 below, and against other county agencies $5,798 below.
Compare with another department
Put Valley 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 ID
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Valley | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sun Valley Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $75,005 | +$17,243 | #675 |
| 2 | Blaine County Sheriff's Office | County | 20 | $74,526 | +$16,765 | #697 |
| 3 | Hailey Police Department | Municipal | — | $72,280 | +$14,518 | #797 |
| 4 | Boise Police Department | Municipal | 326 | $69,514 | +$11,752 | #965 |
| 5 | Meridian Police Department | Municipal | 109 | $67,621 | +$9,859 | #1,085 |
| 6 | Post Falls Police Department | Municipal | 52 | $67,330 | +$9,568 | #1,106 |
| 7 | Coeur d'Alene Police Department | Municipal | 94 | $66,872 | +$9,110 | #1,130 |
| 8 | Kootenai County Sheriff's Office | County | 104 | $65,291 | +$7,530 | #1,239 |
| 9 | Ada County Sheriff's Office | County | 220 | $64,896 | +$7,134 | #1,270 |
| 10 | Nampa Police Department | Municipal | 154 | $64,626 | +$6,864 | #1,286 |
| 11 | McCall Police Department | Municipal | 12 | $63,773 | +$6,011 | #1,332 |
| 12 | Moscow Police Department | Municipal | 30 | $63,544 | +$5,782 | #1,344 |
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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