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Vanderburgh 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.
Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office starts at $68,119 a year — about $32.75 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $271 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $2,745 above the median for county agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in Evansville, IN run about 8% below the national average, so this goes about as far as $74,424 would somewhere at average prices — $6,305 more than the headline figure. Most of that is rent, at 67 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 isVanderburgh County Sheriff's Office reported 114 sworn officers and 116 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 Vanderburgh County says about itself
The mission of the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office is to serve the community in a manner that epitomizes those ideals woven into the fabric of the Constitutions of the United States of America and the State of Indiana.
What Vanderburgh County does
The Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office states that its goal is to provide efficient and effective law-enforcement service and to work with the community to keep Vanderburgh County safe. The office has an authorized strength of 119 deputy sheriffs and recruits both deputy sheriffs and confinement officers
Where the figure comes from
Checked 10 August 2026. Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office Deputy Sheriff employment page — open the source document
Their source is effective 9 August 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.
How this level compares
Where Vanderburgh 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. Vanderburgh County starts at $68,119, so $2,745 above the county middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office officer make?
Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office starts a new officer on $68,119 a year, about $32.75 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 Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office Deputy Sheriff employment page.
Is that good pay for a police officer in Indiana?
It ranks #14 of 39 agencies we have verified in Indiana — 25 pay less, 13 pay more in the state — and #855 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $271 below, and against other county agencies $2,745 above.
Compare with another department
Put Vanderburgh 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 IN
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs Vanderburgh | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bloomington Police Department | Municipal | 95 | $81,234 | +$13,115 | #372 |
| 2 | MSD Wayne Township School Police Department | Special jurisdiction | — | $77,700 | +$9,581 | #464 |
| 3 | Columbus Police Department | Municipal | 88 | $74,984 | +$6,865 | #562 |
| 4 | Fishers Police Department | Municipal | 124 | $74,560 | +$6,441 | #575 |
| 5 | Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department | Municipal | — | $74,459 | +$6,340 | #581 |
| 6 | Lafayette Police Department | Municipal | 142 | $72,539 | +$4,420 | #646 |
| 7 | West Lafayette Police Department | Municipal | 47 | $72,391 | +$4,272 | #649 |
| 8 | Purdue University Police Department | Special jurisdiction | — | $72,137 | +$4,018 | #659 |
| 9 | Carmel Police Department | Municipal | 147 | $72,000 | +$3,881 | #667 |
| 10 | Indiana State Police | State | 1,171 | $70,000 | +$1,881 | #769 |
| 11 | Indiana Gaming Commission — Enforcement Division | State | — | $70,000 | +$1,881 | #770 |
| 12 | Hamilton County Sheriff's Office | County | 62 | $70,000 | +$1,881 | #775 |
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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