Bailiff
Bailiffs perform an inherently physical, in-person security role — screening courtroom entrants, escorting juries and defendants, and physically intervening if a hearing becomes disruptive or dangerous — that cannot be performed remotely or by software.
We have not ingested real-world usage data for this occupation yet. We show a band only where genuine data exists, rather than estimate one.
What a bailiff actually does
Bailiffs (court officers) maintain order and security in courtrooms — screening people entering the courtroom, escorting juries and in-custody defendants, guarding evidence and exhibits, and standing ready to physically intervene if a hearing turns disruptive or dangerous. Many bailiffs are sworn law-enforcement officers (often sheriff's deputies) with full arrest authority inside the courthouse.
The role is fundamentally physical and situational: reading a room for rising tension, restraining a combative individual, securing a chain-of-custody exhibit, and responding instantly to an unpredictable human being in a high-stakes, emotionally charged setting. None of this is a document-processing or pattern-recognition task that a language model performs; it requires an armed, trained, physically present officer with legal authority to detain and use force when necessary.
Courthouse security technology — metal detectors, cameras, access-control systems — has existed for decades without displacing the bailiff, because those tools screen and monitor, but they don't respond. There is no credible AI substitute for physically restraining a person, and no jurisdiction is proposing one. This makes the bailiff one of the most clearly AI-resistant roles in the courtroom, protected by the same physical-presence and legal-force requirements that insulate other frontline law-enforcement and security roles from automation.
Why it reads this way
Bailiffs perform an inherently physical, in-person security role — screening courtroom entrants, escorting juries and defendants, and physically intervening if a hearing becomes disruptive or dangerous — that cannot be performed remotely or by software. Many bailiffs are sworn officers with legal arrest and use-of-force authority inside the courthouse, a power that by definition requires a present human body, not a model.
Courthouse technology like metal detectors and cameras has coexisted with bailiffs for decades because those tools monitor and screen, they don't restrain a person or de-escalate a tense confrontation. The role's low structural-exposure score (72, among the highest 'safe' scores in this dataset) reflects how little of the job resembles a document or reasoning task an AI model could substitute for.
Skills this role draws on
We don't yet have task-by-task time-share data for this occupation, so we can't show which specific tasks carry the exposure score above. This is the real skill set instead.
Typical salary range (USD)
$33,020–$76,620
Average: $49,020/yr
Range source: BLS OEWS wage data via O*NET OnLine (2025 release), SOC 33-3011.00 'Bailiffs'
Average source: BLS OEWS wage data for Bailiffs (33-3011.00) via O*NET OnLine, 2025 wage data (Annual Median Wage)
Related careers
Head-to-head comparisons
Bailiffs score a high structuralScore of 72, among the strongest 'safe' readings in this dataset, reflecting how little of the job resembles a document or language task. The role is physical and situational by nature — courtroom security screening, jury/defendant escort, and physical intervention when a hearing turns disruptive — and many bailiffs carry sworn arrest and use-of-force authority that by law requires a present human officer. As of 2026-08-11, no credible AI substitute for physical restraint or in-person courtroom security exists, and none is being proposed.
This is a researched judgment (checklist v1.2), not a statistical measurement — it sits alongside, not instead of, the structural exposure signal above. Next scheduled review: 2027-08-11.
Data sources & methodology
Salary data: BLS OEWS wage data via O*NET OnLine (2025 release), SOC 33-3011.00 'Bailiffs'. Min/max figures represent the 10th–90th percentile annual wage range across the United States. Average figure sourced separately: BLS OEWS wage data for Bailiffs (33-3011.00) via O*NET OnLine, 2025 wage data (Annual Median Wage).
Automation Risk Score: Based on O*NET occupational analysis (33-3011.00) evaluating task complexity, physical requirements, social intelligence, and environmental variability. Methodology based on research from Frey & Osborne (Oxford, 2017).
Growth projections: 3% (2024-2034), about as fast as the all-occupation average (BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 'Bailiffs, Correctional Officers, and Jailers'), based on BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook.