The published California LEO pay is in "total compensation", which includes benefits and maybe retirement contributions. Police work hourly, not salary, so probably not too difficult to have a base pay of $100k and some overtime to get to total comp of $200k.

I'm not defending sociopaths with badges, but the $200k doesn't sound outlandish to me, especially if the department is on a hiring freeze. It's expensive to hire talent (which is what a trained officer is) in California.

The job role itself will always attract such people.