City of Buffalo / Police Dispatch / Police Lieutenant
Job-title file
Enforce laws and maintain public safety — patrol, respond to incidents, investigate crimes, and make arrests.
8 employees hold this title in Police Dispatch. Median total compensation for the role is $145,627, above the department median of $101,082.
What the records show
How total compensation varies among the 8 people in this role. Even for one job title, pay differs with seniority, step, overtime, and tenure. Each bar is a pay range; the far-right bar collects the highest earners.
Compared with the local labor market
Across all employers in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY area, the median wage for First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives — about 510 people — is $103,330. Police Dispatch pays a median base salary of $91,792 for this role, 11% below that figure — below the 10th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
The bar is the range of annual wages for First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives across every employer in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows Police Dispatch’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives — about 154,610 people — is $106,040. Police Dispatch’s median base salary is 13% below that national figure, about the 35th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY range relative to the national one.
Computed over the 6 of 8 people in this role paid at least $25,000in base salary. The rest are part-year or part-time records, whose actual pay isn’t comparable to a full-time annual wage.
Median total compensation for this role at Police Dispatch is $145,627, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare departments
Police Lieutenant is held in 25 City of Buffalo departments. In Police Dispatch, the median of $145,627 ranks #8 of 25.
Median total compensation for the Police Lieutenant role in other City of Buffalodepartments (highest first). Each bar links to that department’s page for this role.
Compare jurisdictions
This role is reported in 22 jurisdictions. In City of Buffalo, the median of $133,026 ranks #12 of 22. See Police Lieutenant across all of City of Buffalo →
Median total compensation for comparable Police Lieutenantroles in other jurisdictions. Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for the role.
Record list
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Police Lieutenant/Police Dispatch
Source-specific fields
Sean Phillips works as a Police Lieutenant for Police Dispatch within Public Safety. Sean earned $894 in 2024.