In high-crime Essex County, here's what the 22 police chiefs make - NJ.com

NEWARK —Police in Essex County have a lot of work to do.

When it comes to crime, no other New Jersey county comes close to Essex, at least not in terms of sheer volume. The 22 municipalities in Essex racked up a total of 21,840 offenses in 2015, according to the most recent county-wide data published by the New Jersey State Police. That's 36 percent more murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries and thefts than the state's second biggest producer of crime, Camden.

However, police in Essex are trying, and by and large succeeding, in reducing crime. The county recorded a 9-percent overall drop in offenses in 2015 from the 2014 total.

The Essex County Prosecutor's Office takes the lead on murder investigations. But it is the municipal police departments that are on the front lines in the fight against most crime, led by uniformed chiefs or, in some cases, civilian police directors, non of whom made a 2016 list of the state's 24 highest-paid chiefs compiled by NJ Advance Media.

Here are the local top cops in Essex, and how many tax dollars they're paid to keep the peace, in order of lowest to highest salaries. Figures come from the New Jersey Office of Information Technology Open Data Center.

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