Houston is paying a premium for its police force, and a new study puts a hard number on it: about $198,277 per police employee, once you factor in benefits and local purchasing power. That is far above San Antonio’s $140,054 per police worker and comes as big Texas cities wrestle with how much government they can afford.
A working paper from Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy compares what the five largest Texas cities budget per municipal worker. After adjusting for regional price parity so paychecks can be compared across metros, Austin lands on top overall at about $142,630 per employee, while Dallas spends the least. The researchers divided each city’s total budgeted personnel costs by its stated number of budgeted full-time employees, counting salaries, benefits, pension contributions and employer-paid insurance. They used Houston’s FY27 budget and FY26 budgets for the other cities and concluded that public-safety departments, especially police and fire, drive much of the gap between cities.
Bill King, a Baker Institute fellow and co-author of the study, told ABC13 that the math behind Houston’s per-officer cost "means there's a bunch of people making over $200,000" because starting officers are paid far less than that average. In a statement to ABC13, the mayor’s office said Houston has hired more than 1,000 officers since Mayor John Whitmire took office and that HPD now has a record 5,400 officers. The administration also said it is rolling out Ernst & Young recommendations aimed at improving efficiency. City Controller Chris Hollins told ABC13 he is skeptical about how the city will cover those higher personnel costs, underscoring the tug-of-war over priorities ahead of budget season.
Where The Numbers Track With City Findings
The Baker Institute findings line up with alarms already raised in Houston’s own December 2024 Enterprise Assessment, prepared by Ernst & Young. That report flagged "top-heavy layers" and so-called shadow positions that can drag down efficiency. Ernst & Young recommended redesigning support functions, upgrading data systems and tightening up contracting practices to cut duplication and reduce noncompliant spending. Taken together, the two reports hand city leaders a pretty specific to-do list if they want to rein in personnel costs without hacking away at frontline services.
What's Next For The Budget
As Houston’s FY27 budget moves into council hearings, officials will be staring at a fresh set of benchmarks on staffing and pay, especially in public safety. The new figures are likely to trigger pointed questions about how to pay for recent police hiring and other public-safety gains, whether through tax increases, deeper line-by-line scrutiny of departments or reorganizations that trim management layers instead of rank-and-file workers. Expect both the Baker Institute numbers and the Ernst & Young assessment to surface repeatedly in those debates, as city hall defends its staffing levels and fiscal watchdogs press for clearer answers on what taxpayers are really getting for the money.
