Ramapo’s 104 police officers were paid an average of $173,361 last year, making them the highest-paid town police in New York, according to the Empire Center’s 2015 “What They Make” report.

The report uses pay data reported to the New York State and Local Retirement System (NYSLRS) between April 1, 2014 and March 31, 2015. The amounts listed in the report do not include fringe benefits such as health insurance or employer pension contributions, which can add 35 percent or more to the cost for taxpayers.

Users can search the 175,327 pay records of town, city, county and village employees on SeeThroughNY, the Empire Center’s transparency website. The Mid-Hudson data also show:

• Peter F. Brower, who retired as Ramapo police chief last September, was the highest-paid local government employee in New York last year. Brower was paid $369,088.
• Clarkstown’s 163 police officers were the second-highest paid town police in the state, averaging $166,719.
• All 10 of the Mid-Hudson region’s highest-paid local government employees were Ramapo or Clarkstown police.
• Among cities, Yonkers had the highest-paid general employees, averaging $71,650, while Rye had the highest-paid uniformed police and fire employees, who averaged $121,010.

The ten highest-paid local government employees in the Mid-Hudson Region (Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester Counties) were:

The Empire Center is a non-partisan, non-profit independent think tank based in Albany. SeeThroughNY includes payroll and pension data for state and local government employees and retirees; detailed expenditure data for the state Legislature; comparative statistics on local government spending; a searchable database of state revenue and expenditures; and copies of all teacher union contracts and superintendent of schools contracts.