$64,490. That’s the National Average Salary for a Police Officer

In case you missed it, a company known as Your Local Security took to what can only be considered as a painstaking task of number crunching to discover the national average of a police officer's salary: $64,490. That’s an adjusted national average though. Their report found salaries range from about $35,000 (Mississippi) to roughly $100,000 (California).

A few findings

• While California posted up the highest salary, it’s also “the second-highest cost of living of any state in the U.S.”
• Apples-to-apples, despite New York having the fourth-highest cost of living in the states, the state's adjusted average isn't even in the top 10.
• While Mississippi had the lowest adjusted salary, they found that the state also had the highest rate of police officers: 6.741 law enforcement officers for every 1,000 employed persons
• Conversely, the state of Washington has 3.015 officers for every 1,000 employed persons

The site includes an easy to read the table to check out how your own state compares. Hawaii was excluded as they did not release data.

The Top 10 by Adjusted Salary

So, what does ‘adjusted’ mean?

YourLocalSecurity reports that they gathered the raw data from salaries as published in the May 2017 Occupational Employment and Wages report, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Police and Sheriff’s Patrol Officers. “[They] then obtained Regional Price Parities, which measure the difference in price level between states and metro areas, from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The adjusted salary numbers were calculated by dividing the annual mean salary by the price parity. The adjusted salary represents purchasing power based on the cost of living in each state.”

You can find the full report at https://www.yourlocalsecurity.com/blog/2019/02/25/highest-paying-police-departments-cost-of-living/.

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YourLocalSecurity.com is an ADT Authorized Premier Provider. They aim to provide the security tools and information needed to build a safer home environment. Their website is at https://www.yourlocalsecurity.com.