Understaffed sheriff’s department will bump deputy pay over $100K with new contract

Denver Sheriff Department deputies will receive raises over the next two years that will push the top of the pay scale to nearly $102,000 annually under the terms of a new labor contract that the City Council approved on Monday.

The raises start with a 3% increase backdated to Jan. 1 under a collective bargaining agreement that the city reached with the Fraternal Order of Police, Denver Sheriff Lodge 27.

From there, deputies will receive a 4% raise on July 1, a 2% raise on Jan. 1, 2025, and a 3% on July 1, 2025, according to an outline of the new contract provided by the city.

Mayor Mike Johnston called the contract — which runs through the end of 2025 — “a huge step forward for public safety” in Denver in a news release Monday.

The sheriff’s office has struggled with chronic understaffing. As of last fall, only 67% of sworn positions — those held by deputies and uniformed leadership — were filled, according to public safety officials. The department relies on mandatory overtime to cover assignments in the city’s two jails and spent $22 million paying for overtime hours in 2022.

Sheriff Elias Diggins, whom Johnston renominated for that job last fall, said in a statement that the substantial raises and other benefits in the new contract “will help us not only with recruiting the best but retaining the great members we have, as well.”

The full agreement is not yet available on the city’s website but a summary of amendments provided by the city included adding Juneteenth as a recognized holiday, increasing the maximum amount the department will provide for the purchase of a weapon from $650 to $1,000 and providing four weeks of leave to new parents beginning in 2025.

The updated agreement sets deputies’ minimum overtime pay at one and a half times their base rate.