---
title: "First-Line Supervisor of Police and Detectives"
description: "Directly supervise and coordinate activities of members of police force."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-police-and-detectives"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# First-Line Supervisor of Police and Detectives

**Category:** Protective Service · **SOC code:** 33-1012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 33-1012.00

Directly supervise and coordinate activities of members of police force.

Also advertised as: Captain; Deputy Sheriff; Detective Sergeant; Lieutenant; Patrol Sergeant; Police Captain; Police Chief; Police Lieutenant.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $106,040 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $50.98/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $63,350 to $165,110, with the middle half between $81,860 and $132,620
- **Total US employment:** 154,610
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.3% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 10,600 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 60/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 154,610 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $63,350 |
| 25th | $81,860 |
| 50th (median) | $106,040 |
| 75th | $132,620 |
| 90th | $165,110 |
| Mean (average) | $112,190 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| CA | $163,960 | $148,085 | 13,200 |
| NJ | $142,990 | $131,419 | 7,650 |
| HI | $140,590 | $127,866 | 700 |
| AK | $137,320 | $134,155 | 320 |
| WA | $136,280 | $127,349 | 2,750 |
| IL | $135,080 | $135,137 | 4,900 |
| DC | $134,760 | $122,619 | 1,230 |
| NV | $132,100 | $132,128 | 1,300 |
| DE | $131,080 | $131,332 | 410 |
| CO | $126,810 | $123,054 | 2,790 |
| NY | $124,080 | $114,973 | 12,750 |
| OR | $122,130 | $118,159 | 1,470 |
| MD | $120,700 | $114,997 | 6,700 |
| MN | $118,750 | $120,410 | 2,870 |
| TX | $111,000 | $114,366 | 5,540 |

38 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 53 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-police-and-detectives/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-police-and-detectives.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 160,200 in the 2025–2035 base year to 165,400 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 5,200 jobs, or +3.3%. About as fast as average: 3.3% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 10,600 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** Less than 5 years.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 56.4% |
| Some College Courses | 19.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 19.4% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 3.6% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 0.9% |

## What the work involves

- Explain police operations to subordinates to assist them in performing their job duties.
- Inform personnel of changes in regulations and policies, implications of new or amended laws, and new techniques of police work.
- Prepare work schedules and assign duties to subordinates.
- Maintain logs, prepare reports, and direct the preparation, handling, and maintenance of departmental records.
- Inspect facilities, supplies, vehicles, and equipment to ensure conformance to standards.
- Train staff in proper police work procedures.
- Supervise and coordinate the investigation of criminal cases, offering guidance and expertise to investigators, and ensuring that procedures are conducted in accordance with laws and regulations.
- Direct collection, preparation, and handling of evidence and personal property of prisoners.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Management of Personnel Resources — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Enterprising (E), Conventional (C), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| E — Enterprising | 6.88 |
| C — Conventional | 5.09 |
| S — Social | 3.78 |
| R — Realistic | 3.45 |
| I — Investigative | 2.34 |
| A — Artistic | 1.01 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESTJ | 82.0 |
| ESFJ | 79.1 |
| ESTP | 63.9 |
| ISFJ | 62.9 |
| ENTJ | 62.4 |

Best-fitting types: ESTJ, ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Police Officer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/police-officer) — median $76,210
- [Detective and Criminal Investigator](https://nuecareer.com/careers/detective-and-criminal-investigator) — median $93,790
- [First-Line Supervisor of Correctional Officers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-correctional-officers) — median $77,970
- [First-Line Supervisor of Security Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-security-workers) — median $55,940
- [Transit and Railroad Police](https://nuecareer.com/careers/transit-and-railroad-police) — median $90,230
- [First-Line Supervisor of Firefighting and Prevention Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-firefighting-and-prevention-workers) — median $93,530
- [First-Line Supervisor of Passenger Attendants](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-passenger-attendants) — median $62,840
- [Probation Officer and Correctional Treatment Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/probation-officer-and-correctional-treatment-specialist) — median $66,270
- [Correctional Officer and Jailer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/correctional-officer-and-jailer) — median $58,940
- [Bailiff](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bailiff) — median $56,600

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-police-and-detectives