What is a Lieutenant?

A lieutenant monitors activities in the police department, examines departmental issues, and is cooperative during law enforcement inquisitions. Your job requires you to oversee internal events and make sure of the safeguarding and safety of the area. As a lieutenant, you have to execute laws and policies for everybody's strict adherence and examine police departments' establishments. You must also identify grievous crimes, seize contravene goods, and write any proof for investigation. Additionally, you have to often oversee City periods and give instructions to deputies about recent or modified policies. You must carry out equipment, vehicle, and uniform reviews, and you may have to train new workers and analyze present employees' efficiency. Sometimes, outside of the field, you have to carry out managerial duties like sustaining apprehension and property books. You must also ensure appropriate documentation of evidence.

To become a lieutenant requires you to have a bachelor's or an associate degree in criminal justice, fire science and protection, or business. Furthermore, you must exhibit excellent communication, leadership, and organization skills. In addition, as a lieutenant, you must be proficient in using specific weapons. You will earn an average of $43,329 yearly or $20.83 an hour.

What Does a Lieutenant Do

When it comes to the most important skills required to be a lieutenant, we found that a lot of resumes listed 10.6% of lieutenants included public safety, while 10.1% of resumes included patrol, and 8.0% of resumes included direct supervision. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.

Learn more about what a Lieutenant does

How To Become a Lieutenant

If you're interested in becoming a lieutenant, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 60.1% of lieutenants have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.5% of lieutenants have master's degrees. Even though most lieutenants have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Lieutenant

Top Lieutenant Jobs Near You

Lieutenant Career Paths

As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a lieutenant can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as officer, progress to a title such as supervisor and then eventually end up with the title operations superintendent.

Top Careers Before Lieutenant

Sergeant (79,335 Jobs)

21.9 %

Police Officer (116,287 Jobs)

11.1 %

Correction Officer (103,383 Jobs)

9.5 %

Top Careers After Lieutenant

Captain (4,430 Jobs)

25.0 %

Security Officer (125,879 Jobs)

12.8 %

Police Officer (116,287 Jobs)

6.2 %

Average Salary for a Lieutenant

Lieutenants in America make an average salary of $47,781 per year or $23 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $55,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $41,000 per year.

Average Lieutenant Salary

$47,781 Yearly

$22.97 hourly

$41,00010%

$47,000Median

$55,00090%

See More Salary Information

What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Lieutenant

There are several types of lieutenant, including:

Sergeant

Role:

Sergeants have a lot of responsibility. And when we say a lot, we mean a lot. You'll have all the responsibilities that police officers have and then you'll also be responsible for any duties that the police chief assigns to you.

It is an important role for the community you serve. You're the one police officers look to for guidance and support. But you also have to supervise your team to ensure they're doing the right thing for the community.

Speaking of community, sergeants are very involved in their communities. From engaging in conversations to directing public events, you'll want to be welcoming and inviting to the community so that they trust you and your team. Your duty is to serve and protect them, and they're counting on you to see that through.

Average Salary: $48,557
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Platoon Sergeant

Role:

A platoon sergeant is the senior noncommissioned officer in a unit. A unit is usually composed of about 40 officers. He/She is the principal tactical adviser to the platoon commander and collaborates with the commander to establish training schedules. Asides from that, he/she reviews the readiness of the platoon and its members for combat. Platoon sergeants are tasked with running the training of the platoon. They oversee the daily routines of the platoon, including inspections, movement between training locations, rest periods, and other activities.

As a platoon sergeant, you must hold at least the rank of a staff sergeant. You must be within pay grade E-6. You must have been in the force for at least four years. Your experience must include the practical application of acquired knowledge. You must possess communication, leadership, and analytical skills. Platoon sergeants earn an average salary of $59,246 per year. It varies between $40,000 and $87,000.

Average Salary: $95,863
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Staff Sergeant

Role:

A staff sergeant is an army officer ranking above a sergeant. He/She or she is responsible for commanding a squad of around 10 soldiers. You become a staff sergeant if you are promoted from a lower rank of enlisted army personnel.

A staff sergeant is a non-commissioned officer, which means if you get promoted, your primary duties will revolve around supporting the work of commissioned officer corps and supervising enlisted soldiers. Other than that, you will have to develop, maintain, and use your potential as a soldier, according to Army regulations.

You can also obtain specialty skills and work in areas such as water treatment, medicine, technical engineering, avionics system repairs, and many others. Your payment will increase along with the number of years you spend on duty, starting from $29,840.40 a year, complete with generous bonuses and allowances.

Average Salary: $41,479
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Lieutenant Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active lieutenant jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where lieutenants earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Lieutenant Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	Texas	59	$47,415
2	South Carolina	25	$32,194
3	Virginia	21	$44,106
4	New York	16	$55,302
5	Indiana	12	$34,443
6	California	11	$53,268
7	North Carolina	7	$43,416
8	Missouri	7	$41,939
9	Ohio	6	$51,834
10	Washington	6	$44,440
11	Tennessee	5	$44,820
12	Arizona	5	$44,906
13	Colorado	4	$64,522
14	Nevada	4	$48,275
15	Pennsylvania	4	$45,126
16	Maryland	4	$33,129
17	New Hampshire	3	$46,214
18	Arkansas	3	$34,729
19	Oklahoma	2	$44,776
20	New Jersey	2	$48,864
21	Oregon	2	$45,811
22	Alabama	2	$43,630
23	Wisconsin	2	$34,759
24	New Mexico	1	$48,461
25	Montana	1	$33,339
26	Idaho	0	$59,725
27	Maine	0	$57,879
28	West Virginia	0	$51,618
29	Kentucky	0	$51,171
30	Illinois	0	$51,070
31	Iowa	0	$48,318
32	Kansas	0	$47,914
33	Rhode Island	0	$46,565
34	Delaware	0	$46,861
35	Wyoming	0	$44,585
36	Georgia	0	$44,615
37	Minnesota	0	$44,891
38	North Dakota	0	$42,775
39	Alaska	0	$42,713
40	Utah	0	$43,045
41	Florida	0	$43,799
42	Nebraska	0	$42,342
43	Mississippi	0	$41,522
44	Michigan	0	$35,626
45	South Dakota	0	$33,073
46	Hawaii	0	$35,036
47	Connecticut	0	$33,201
48	Louisiana	0	$32,473
49	Massachusetts	0	$32,917
50	Vermont	0	$32,718

Lieutenant Education

Lieutenant Majors

Criminal Justice

30.4 %

Business

14.0 %

Fire Science And Protection

6.4 %

Lieutenant Degrees

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Nursing

Law

Political Science

Business

Law Enforcement

Top Skills For a Lieutenant

Public Safety, 10.6%

Patrol, 10.1%

Direct Supervision, 8.0%

Security Procedures, 7.2%

Incident Command, 6.6%

Other Skills, 57.5%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Lieutenant Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Lieutenant templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Lieutenant resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Lieutenant Demographics

Lieutenant Gender Distribution

Male

84%

Female

16%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among lieutenants, 16.4% of them are women, while 83.6% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among lieutenants is White, which makes up 66.8% of all lieutenants.

The most common foreign language among lieutenants is Spanish at 49.6%.

Online Courses For Lieutenant That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure

1. In the Trenches: Security Operations Center

Cyber-attacks, breaches, and incidents continue to grow. The sophistication and complexity of these attacks continue to evolve. More than ever organizations need to plan, prepare, and defend against a potential cyber incident. Security Operation Centers (SOCs) act as an organization's front-line defense against cyber incidents. SOC analyst accomplishes this by monitoring and responding to network and host anomalies, performing an in-depth analysis of suspicious events, and when necessary,...

See More on Coursera

2. Incident Detection and Response

Course 7: Incident Detection and Response Welcome to course seven, Incident Detection and Response. Having an intruder inside your systems for months unnoticed by your systems, administrators, security specialists, and end-users is tantamount to giving the intruder, the keys to your business or organization. In many cases, organizations discover that they have been subjected to a data breach when they are told by others that their private data has been offered for sale on the dark web. Many...

See More on Coursera

3. Cyber Incident Response

The Cyber Incident Response course will give students an understanding of how incidents are responded to at a high level, as well as allow them to build important technical skills through the hands-on labs and projects. This course starts with a high-level discussion of what happens at each phase of responding to an incident, followed by a technical deep dive into some of the more exciting parts of memory, network, and host analysis and forensics. This course is for anyone wishing to apply...

See More on Coursera

Show More Lieutenant Courses

Job type you want

Full Time

Part Time

Internship

Temporary

Best States For a Lieutenant

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a lieutenant. The best states for people in this position are Colorado, Idaho, Maine, and New York. Lieutenants make the most in Colorado with an average salary of $64,522. Whereas in Idaho and Maine, they would average $59,725 and $57,879, respectively. While lieutenants would only make an average of $55,302 in New York, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Colorado

Total Lieutenant Jobs: 4

Highest 10% Earn:

$75,000

Location Quotient:

0.89

$64,522

Avg. Salary

View 4 Lieutenant Jobs In CO

2. New York

Total Lieutenant Jobs: 16

Highest 10% Earn:

$63,000

Location Quotient:

1.64

$55,302

Avg. Salary

View 16 Lieutenant Jobs In NY

3. Idaho

Total Lieutenant Jobs: 0

Highest 10% Earn:

$69,000

Location Quotient:

$59,725

Avg. Salary

View 0 Lieutenant Jobs In ID

Full List Of Best States For Lieutenants

How Do Lieutenant Rate Their Jobs?

Top Lieutenant Employers

Most Common Employers For Lieutenant

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	United States Marine Corps	$51,405	$24.71	14
2	USAF Police Alumni Association	$51,296	$24.66	19
3	EMT International	$50,989	$24.51	7
4	The GEO Group	$50,855	$24.45	109
5	Texas.gov - State of Texas Official Website	$50,849	$24.45	9
6	US Air Conditioning Distributors	$50,828	$24.44	13
7	Pico de Gallo	$50,821	$24.43	10
8	City of New York	$50,760	$24.40	97
9	Memphis Police Department	$50,314	$24.19	10
10	Management & Training	$49,106	$23.61	10

Lieutenant Videos

On Being: A 2nd Lieutenant

Fire Department Lieutenant (Crash Truck), Career Video from drkit.org

Updated February 6, 2023

What is a Lieutenant?

What Does a Lieutenant Do

How To Become a Lieutenant

Lieutenant Career Paths

Top Careers Before Lieutenant

Top Careers After Lieutenant

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a Lieutenant

Roles and Types of Lieutenant

Sergeant

Platoon Sergeant

Staff Sergeant

States With The Most Lieutenant Jobs

Number Of Lieutenant Jobs By State

Lieutenant Education

Lieutenant Majors

Lieutenant Degrees

Top Colleges for Lieutenants

1. Pennsylvania State University

2. California State University - Bakersfield

3. SUNY at Binghamton

4. University of Georgia

5. SUNY at Albany

6. Western Carolina University

7. Mercyhurst University

8. University of Arizona

9. Florida International University

10. George Washington University, The

Top Skills For a Lieutenant

Choose From 10+ Customizable Lieutenant Resume templates

Lieutenant Demographics

Lieutenant Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Lieutenant That You May Like

Best States For a Lieutenant

How Do Lieutenant Rate Their Jobs?

Top Lieutenant Employers

Most Common Employers For Lieutenant

Lieutenant Videos

Lieutenant Related Careers

Lieutenant Related Jobs

What Similar Roles Do

Resume For Related Jobs