Well first you are mistaken about details. The states that I know of that have details are the following:
Florida
Georgia
Tennessee
Conneticut
Rhode Island
The salaries are not always less, go to officer.com and look at salries then go to Realestatebook.com and do some research you will find that there are some agencies in states that pay well and have a lower cost of living. As in Ma pay can fluxuate greatly from one part of the state to another, same holds for other states. My research has found that you get a higher than average for the area STARTING salary and have a lower cost of living. I have found the following places that appear to be that way:
Some parts of Florida, Broward county agencies, Tampa area,. St Petersburg, Gainsville,and tallahassee.
Georgia, I went down this past week and found that a lot of the larger squared away agencies will pay in the low to mid 30s and if you lateral you can excpect the mid to high 30s. You easily buy a house for $130,000 that would cost $400,000 in Ma. NAd get a hell of a lot more land and a house less than 5yrs old its almost a crime as cheap as the houses are compared to the cost of living down there. After going there and getting a close look at things and talking to a few Atlanta cops it seems the best place to be a cop, all the larger county police depts in the area pay very well and have lots of deatils like Fulton County ($35Hr) top notch p.ds and of course the low cost of VERY nice housing. Its blowing up down there my brother is a contractor and there is ton building, if your looking out of state go now while its good and get a nitch. I can remember that just about every bar/restaurant and retail store I went into had a detail cop.
Seattle seems to have high pay and low cost housing, same with Portland P.D although I don't know if they have details. I suspect most palces do but call it something different, or its at an OT rate which is just fine.
There are a lot of other places that I found but I'm too dam lazy to type anymore.