What Does a Chief of Police Do?
Whether a department patrols a small town, a county seat or a university campus, residents hold one person answerable for how it polices them: the chief of police. Chiefs perform a wide range of work depending on the size of the force and the politics of the place, from setting policy and budgets to facing the cameras after a crisis.
Chief of Police Duties and Responsibilities
The primary responsibilities of a chief of police include:
- Answer to the mayor, city manager or university president for the department's performance and conduct.
- Set the department's priorities each year, such as traffic safety or burglaries, and assign resources to match.
- Approve use-of-force, pursuit and body camera policies, and defend them to the public and council.
- Decide on hiring, promotions and discipline, including terminations after internal investigations.
- Present the budget request and justify staffing, vehicle and technology costs to elected officials.
- Speak to the media and residents after serious incidents, including officer shootings and major crimes.
- Negotiate with police unions over contracts, schedules and disciplinary procedures.
- Pursue or keep CALEA accreditation by holding the department to its written standards.
- Publish the yearly Clery Act crime and safety report in university departments.
- Build working ties with prosecutors, sheriffs, fire chiefs and community groups.
Required Skills and Qualifications
To succeed as a chief of police, you will need the following skills and qualifications:
- Long patrol and command experience
- A bachelor's degree, often a master's, in criminal justice or public administration
- Public speaking under pressure
- Budgeting and labor relations
- Policy writing grounded in case law on searches and force
- Crisis leadership
- Political judgment with councils and campus leaders
- Integrity that holds up to public scrutiny
Education and Training
Most chiefs rise through the ranks of a police department, but some start out by leading a smaller agency and then moving to a larger one. BLS lists a high school diploma and on-the-job training as typical for police supervisors as a group, yet many chief posts now ask for a bachelor's degree and some prefer a master's. Executive leadership courses often help.
Salary and Job Outlook
Typical pay: varies widely for this role, and BLS does not publish pay for it separately. In the wider BLS group it belongs to (First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives), the middle half of earners made $81,860 to $132,620 a year, and the median was $106,040.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, First-Line Supervisors of Police and Detectives.
BLS projects employment of first-line supervisors of police and detectives, the group whose figures appear here, to grow about 3 percent from 2025 to 2035. The group averages about 10,600 openings a year, but chief posts are few, with one per department. Chiefs are paid by the city, county or campus that hires them, and those running large departments usually earn well above this supervisor group's figures.
Outlook source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2025 to 2035, First-line supervisors of police and detectives.