Major William Ricker joined the Atlanta Police Department in 1994, gaining experience and supervisory skills at each level of his career that serve him in his role today.

Ricker began his career with APD as a Zone 3 patrol officer in southeast Atlanta. He was promoted to sergeant 11 years later where he began to gain experience as a supervisor over patrol officers in the field and to serve as an important face of the department in community meetings.

In 2007 he was transferred to the department’s Narcotics Unit, tasked with assisting in its re-creation.  Four years later Ricker was assigned to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s West Metro Regional Drug Enforcement Office as their Deputy Commander.  He would be the first non-GBI agent to serve in that role.

Ricker became a lieutenant in 2015, where he led the U.S. Attorney’s Office Drug Market Intervention effort in northwest Atlanta to combat the heroin epidemic in the English Avenue community. He was awarded by the U.S. Attorney in 2017 for those efforts.

As a lieutenant, Ricker would later excel in his role as commander of the department’s Atlanta Proactive Enforcement and Interdiction Unit (APEX), formed to combat violent repeat offenders and violent crime in the city.  In 2019, Ricker was promoted to captain and assumed the role of Night Commander, responsible for incident command for the entire city during overnight hours.

Ricker was promoted in 2020 to the position of major in the Contingency Operations Division, which coordinates security for major events in the city.  As the Executive officer in C.O.D. , Ricker was responsible for APD’s response to COVID 19 as well as overseeing the Joint Operations Center and the Video Integration Center.

January 2021 Major Ricker moved into the Criminal Investigations Division serving in the role of Special Enforcement Section Commander.  He is responsible for the daily operations of the Asset Forfeiture, Auto Theft, Criminal Intelligence, Fugitive, and Homeland Security Units.  These Units are tasked in targeting and investigating specific crimes with the assistance of State and Federal task forces.

Ricker holds certifications in the National Incident Management System and is a Georgia POST General Instructor.  He is a 2018 graduate of the Atlanta Police Leadership Institute Tier IV.