EDITOR’S NOTE: This story is part of The Pay Check, an in-depth look at every dollar earned by 24,000 law enforcement officers across New Jersey in 2019. Find the full database here: The Pay Check.

How much money do police officers really make?

For the first time, New Jersey residents will be able to answer that question.

Today, NJ Advance Media published a first-of-its-kind database that breaks down the earnings of 24,000 local police officers and state troopers.

The Pay Check: Database | Glossary of Terms | How We Did It

The two-year effort involved a team of reporters who sifted through payroll records from each of New Jersey’s 463 local police departments, plus state police, to chart how much officers in the state earn — including payments not previously made public.

Don’t have time to read the entire investigation? Here are some of the key questions answered.

So cut to the chase, how much do police really make?

The short answer? A lot more than we thought. And it’s complicated.

It is no secret that New Jersey police have some of the highest salaries in the nation. Those have been in the news for years, because salaries are used to calculate pensions, and pensions have long been a hot-button topic.

But on top of those, police routinely add tens of thousands of dollars to their paychecks with little public notice, thanks to overtime, off-duty details monitoring traffic and other perks worked into their contracts.

NJ Advance Media’s analysis focused on 2019, the last year before the disruption of the pandemic. Across the state, the average officer made $123,239. Of that amount, 20% came outside an officer’s regular pay, usually through overtime and off-duty work.

In the highest-paid departments, average earnings topped $180,000, about the same as a school superintendent.

What do critics say? How about supporters?

Law enforcement and union officials insist officers deserve every dollar they earn, saying police risk themselves to serve the public. Recruiting — already difficult amid today’s scrutiny of police — would only get worse if compensation were cut, police officials say.

But critics, like social justice advocates, say too much money is spent on policing, peeling resources from other pressing public needs.

Police now account for as much as 40% of some municipal budgets, in a state that has the highest property taxes in the nation. It’s a big pot of money — NJ Advance Media’s database documents $2.94 billion in compensation in 2019, not even counting the cost of health and retirement benefits.

So who are some of the big earners?

State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan, who oversees New Jersey’s largest law enforcement agency, made $190,000 in 2019. Yet nearly 1,500 local cops and 115 state troopers earned more money than him, in departments of as small as 11 officers.

Some of those officers include:

• A lieutenant in Clifton who pulled in nearly $200,000 in overtime, doubling his salary.
• A police chief in Bernards Township, who added $105,000 to his pay by manning traffic details paid by utility companies.
• An officer in Teaneck who made $8,300 for hours he didn’t even work, thanks to a generous township ordinance.

In total, 104 police officers statewide topped $250,000, 13 of whom made more than $300,000.

I’m familiar with overtime, but what’s an off-duty detail?

If you’ve seen a police cruiser parked alongside a utility project, you’ve seen an off-duty detail.

Those outside jobs are the among the most lucrative ways for officers to jack up their earnings.

The work is paid for by whoever is hiring the officer. While it doesn’t come out of municipal budgets, it still impacts the public’s bottom line: Details typically involve companies such as PSE&G, Verizon and American Water, which pass the expense onto consumers through higher utility rates.

Law enforcement officials say the presence of a cop at a construction site helps public safety because drivers are more likely to obey the rules if police are there.

But extra details are largely unregulated, and critics say not all the work can be justified. Each town sets the rates that contractors must pay — and there’s wide variation in those fees.

Off-duty details also have proven scandal prone, including in Jersey City, where at least a dozen police officers were convicted of enriching themselves through no-show jobs, among them a former police chief.

If an officer is willing to legitimately work a lot of hours to make extra money, what’s wrong with that?

Nothing, say some police officials, who praise their busiest officers for helping their departments meet the 24/7 demands of policing.

But for the highest earners, their sheer number of hours was often staggering: By loading up on extra shifts, there were cops who recorded workweeks of 100 hours or more or who worked for weeks at a time without a day off.

Experts say an exhausted cop is a potentially dangerous one, which is why many departments place caps on the hours officers are allowed to work, typically restricting them to 16 hours in a day. Yet NJ Advance Media also found officers who flouted those rules – including one credited with working 24 hours straight on five occasions.

You mentioned contractual perks ... what about them?

Overtime and extra details are the two biggest drivers of extra earnings by police, but police union contracts are peppered with smaller ways to earn money. They’re not always huge amounts, $500 here, 3% there. But all together, they add up.

Officers receive bonuses for college degrees, for working overnight shifts, for performing well on physical examinations or for not calling out sick. Many departments also reward long-serving officers for their loyalty, by offering them longevity raises that can reach tens of thousands of dollars for the top earners.

Those are just some examples of contractual benefits, which vary from department to department.

Have a question or a comment about this project? Email the authors at [email protected].

Reporters

Riley Yates is the lead data reporter for NJ.com and The Star-Ledger. He has spent most of his career covering criminal justice.

Katie Kausch is a reporter who covers crime, courts, and breaking news across New Jersey for NJ.com and The Star-Ledger.

Nick Devlin is a reporter on the data and investigations team for NJ.com.

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