LOGAN – The Cache County Sheriff’s Office is bleeding personnel badly and Sheriff Chad Jensen’s solution to that problem is a mid-year pay raise for his deputies starting in July.
At their regular meeting on June 10, Jensen told members of the Cache County Council that he could handle a 10-percent pay hike for deputies and a 3-percent increase for sergeants and lieutenants with available funds in his current year budget.
But the price tag for those increases in the future would be about $1.5 million in the county’s 2026 budget as well as in subsequent years.
The primary issue is compensation, Jensen explained, because other law enforcement agencies in the northern Utah can afford to beat what Cache County can pay.
“Pay is simply the biggest problem with retention of staff,” the sheriff emphasized.
Jensen summarized his recent losses to other law enforcement agencies as one 16-year deputy, a 12-year deputy, an 11-year deputy, a 10-year deputy, a six-year deputy, a five-year deputy, a four-year deputy; and a two-year deputy. Four additional losses are pending, one deputy resigned from law enforcement altogether and two 20-year retirements are also looming.
All of those departures represent losses of valuable experience and certifications within the Cache County Sheriff Department, Jensen added.
Recent exit interviews revealed that the reasons for those departures included other agencies offering incentives including up to a $7 per hour increase in pay; no deductions for Social Security; no insurance premiums; no restrictions on residency or overnight use of official vehicles; up to $7,500 in signing bonuses; and, in one case, a $10,000 retention bonus.
Jensen acknowledged that the county council has been “fantastic” with his department in term of compensation in recent years.
In 2015, starting pay for sheriff’s deputies was only $16.48 per hour. By 2025, that starting hourly wage had jumped to $28.11.
But those hourly wages still lag behind those of other surrounding law enforcement agencies, according to Jensen.
The Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office will be paying a starting wage of between $30.50 and $31.50 per hour in January, while the Weber County Sheriff’s Office and the Ogden Police Department have starting wages pegged at around $32.00 per hour now, with additional increases pending.
What Jensen proposed to council members was a starting wage of $30.92 per hour for deputies starting in July, with a cost of roughly $750,000 for rest of 2025 and an ongoing expenditure of $1.5 million into the future.
“Our employees are the most important asset that the Sheriff’s Office has,” Jensen concluded.
“Without our employees, cars don’t matter; the jail doesn’t matter; investigations don’t matter; school resources doesn’t matter; none of it matters.”
County Council chair Sandi Goodlander thanked Jensen for his presentation, but the council members took no action on his proposal.