How much does a Sheriff make in California?

Sheriffs in California are elected officials and are supposed to serve as the chief law enforcement officer of each county. They are elected to serve four-year terms.

Each county determines the salary for their sheriffs, meaning there is a wide range across the state.

How much do Sheriffs make in California?

Sheriffs are often one of the highest paid elected officials at the county level across the Golden State. Often, in counties where the salary of these law enforcement officials ranks lower it is because the county hires medical professionals to operate in jails and juvenile detention facilities.

The chart below compares the base salaries of each sheriff to give an idea of how the pay compares to other officials in the county. However, when accounting for other benefits, the rankings often shift. For example, when accounting for “Other Pay,” Sheriff Shannon D Dicus goes from the 52nd highest-paid official to the second highest.

In most counties, Sheriffs are often in the top ten highest paid officials in counties across the state. Del Norte happens to be the only county were the base salary for their Sheriff is less than $100,000. In most others, salaries are far and above $100,000, even reaching over $350,000, in some areas.

Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office accused of housing violent deputy gangs

Those working in Sheriff’s offices across the state are some of the highest paid employees and recent reports have uncovered a long history of gangs operating within departments across Los Angeles County.

According to Knock LA! there are at least eighteen gangs operating within the LA Sheriff’s Office.

The organization who has spent years investigated the presence of these gangs within the highest law enforcement office in the county. Although many other governance bodies including the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the Los Angeles County District Attorney, the California Senate Senate Subcommittee on Police Officer Conduct, have confirmed the presence of these gangs, no internal investigations have been launched.

These gangs have killed at least nineteen people, all men of color, and have terrorized communities across the area.

While the tradition of rouge gangs has long been a facet of the Sheriff’s office culture for over fifty-years, some tracking their crimes have noticed an uptick in violence in recent years. A civil rights attorney from LA, John Sweeney, said that over the last fifteen years, police shootings have increased, “especially in the South command district that is Compton Station, the Century Station, South LA Station, and the East LA Station.” Sweeney says that these stations “are notorious for these gangs popping up.”

Local news in Compton reported on a gang operating there which reports refer to as the ‘Executioners.’ Investigators have found at least fifteen members with matching tattoos that depict “a skeleton wearing a Nazi helmet emblazoned with the letters CPT.” The tattoo, which experts have testified looks like it is based on a stencil, also shows “the skeleton [holding] a rifle marked with the Roman numeral for 28, surrounded by flames.”

More investigations into the presence of these groups are needed to end their brutality but over fears for their own safety many officials have denied requests by the public to investigate.