At Upwards of $300,000 a Year, Police Officers Start to Out-Earn Professors

In San Francisco, the median police officer earns $301,000 a year in compensation, and the top-earning cop took home $872,000, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. In Los Angeles, 23 police employees earned more than $400,000 in 2025. Some were deputy chiefs but others were sergeants or ordinary officers who worked a lot of overtime, data from the city controller’s office indicates.