Deputy pay low despite dangers
Deputies are the law in most unincorporated areas across the country, escorting prisoners, acting as courtroom bailiffs, riding patrol and investigating crime. Yet those in rural counties typically make a fraction of what state troopers and city police officers earn, often with no health insurance or other benefits.
‘We beat our chests about our soldiers but we don’t do that for the people who protect you every day,’ said former Tennessee Sheriff’s Association President Terry Ashe. ‘These men and women are risking their lives.’
While population dictates the minimum pay of Tennessee’s elected sheriffs, ranging from about $48,000 to more than $100,000, there is no national or state standard for deputies.
‘The political reality is we have a hard time telling the locals what to do,’ said Tennessee state Sen. Tim Burchett, who sponsored a bill to set minimum salaries that failed last year.
Burchett said differences between urban and rural counties, including varying populations and tax resources, make it hard to develop a statewide approach.
Ladue Boulden, the mayor of Grundy County, where Tate made $22,000 to $23,000 a year, said deputy pay should be higher but small communities like his ‘ the county has about 15,000 residents ‘ ‘have to live within their means.’
No central organization tracks deputies’ salaries, which vary widely across the country.
In Wayne County, Tenn., deputies start at $8 an hour, but get bumped up to $9 if they finish a 10-week law enforcement training program. In Bryan County, Okla., starting pay for a deputy is $10.38 an hour.
More affluent Cumberland County, Maine, pays new deputies $17.82 an hour. A new, trained deputy earns $25.06 in an hour in Riverside County, Calif., outside Los Angeles.
In Missouri, the deputy sheriff’s association says the average salary for a deputy is $22,262 a year, less than it takes to qualify for food stamps.
Missouri Deputy Sheriff’s Association President Dave Boehm said deputies in sparsely populated areas make about $17,000 a year, while deputies in suburban counties near St. Louis start at about $30,000. Several years ago, he said, a chief deputy gave up his job to cut grass.
‘He was able to make more money in a grass cutting season then he could in a full year as chief deputy of a sheriff’s department,’ Boehm said.
Benefits are also an issue. In Grundy County, health insurance for a family, $800 a month, is set to increase by 7 percent.
Ashe, a sheriff for 26 years, said counties that don’t pay enough or provide affordable benefits are doing a ‘disservice to taxpayers’ because deputies leave for other jobs.
He said that unlike a police officer, a deputy has to know civil law to serve lawsuits and court orders.
‘You go out there with an attachment to take children out of a bad home and you think that isn’t trouble’? Ashe said. ‘Police officers don’t have to do that.’
Tate, 29, was shot June 5 by a suspect he was trying to take into custody on a probation violation warrant. The suspect escaped with Tate’s gun and eluded a daylong manhunt before fatally shooting himself.
Brian Moran, a Knoxville police officer who is president of the Tennessee Fraternal Order of Police, said law enforcement officers need more leverage in getting raises or better benefits from local elected officials. A bill now in Congress is aimed at doing that by providing minimal collective bargaining rights for police officers and firefighters.
Warren County pay scale
The current salaries for Warren County sheriff’s deputies range from $12.12 per hour to $14.75 per hour.
The county pays for $15,000 in life insurance for deputies and contributes $225 per month to health insurance, which varies depending on the plan chosen, and whether the employee chooses the single plan or family plan.