How the department report card works

The categories

Pay

The top salary for officer or deputy titles and the median total pay actually paid, including overtime. The two are ranked separately and averaged.

Pay against local income

Median total pay divided by the median household income of the city the department polices, or the county for a sheriff. A rough guide to how far the pay goes where you work. Campus, transit, port, park and state agencies get no grade here because they do not map to one city.

Promotion pay

Sergeants' median regular pay divided by officers', before overtime. Shows how much more the first promotion pays. Needs at least three full-year sergeants.

Overtime, not graded

Shown as low, typical or high against similar departments. More overtime means more money and more hours, and it can mean a department is short of staff, so it gets no grade.

How a grade is set

• Departments are compared only with others of similar size: 10 to 24 officers, 25 to 99, and 100 or more.
• Within its size group, the top fifth gets an A, the next fifth a B, and so on down to E for the bottom fifth. E does not mean failing. It means four fifths of similar departments rank higher on that one measure.
• Every input is a public record the department cannot edit: the State Controller's pay files and the Census Bureau's income estimates.
• What the work is like (stops on foot, at night, from calls) is shown on each page but never graded. Whether more of it is better depends on the applicant.
• Not in the grades yet: benefits and retirement, housing costs, turnover, time to get hired. Those need data that is not published statewide.

An A for pay and an A for pay against local income

11 departments earn both.