An SPD police office makes, on average, 6 figures. So do the officers in the 7 other west coast cities closest to Seattle in size. They are not in the same income bracket. (Source, KUOW interview last month)
I worked for a large regional government. All employees positions and salaries are on the Web. Among the top paid are the judges, PA, a top doctor and beat cops. Not seargents or captains but beat cops. They get a guaranteed %5 per year salary increase and enjoy a tatic called salary padding. The final 5 years (one needs only 20 years to retire) lots of overtime gets thrown your way so that when the pension is calculated (based on final 5 years of employment) you get to retire with a pension based on up to $200,000. Not to mention you just made $1,000,000 over the past five years thanks to the tax payers.