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 Zone 1 community, serving as an important face of the department in community meetings and mentoring of his officers.

In 2007 he was transferred to the department’s Narcotics Unit, tasked with assisting in its re-creation after being disbanded.  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 returning to Zone 1. During that time, he led the department’s efforts in the U.S. Attorney’s Office Drug Market Intervention to combat the heroin epidemic in the English Avenue community. He received an award 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 was 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.

December 2021 Major Ricker assumed a new role as the Zone 3 Commander. He was responsible for overseeing 110 employees in tackling crime issues for citizen and visitors of the 23 square miles in South Atlanta. His role required establishing crime fighting patterns based off statistics and trends throughout the community while actively engaging and collaborating to find solutions to neighborhood needs. January 2025 Zone 3 received the Atlanta Police Department Crime Reduction Award seeing a 23% drop in crime compared to the previous year.

March 2025 Major Ricker was assigned back to the Criminal investigations Division as the commander of the Property Crimes Section. The Property Crimes Section holds the investigative units for Burglary, Larceny, Larceny from Auto, Fraud, and General Crimes.

Ricker holds certifications in the National Incident Management System, is a Georgia POST General Instructor, and has a POST Managerial Certificate. He is a 2018 graduate of the Atlanta Police Leadership Institute Tier IV and 2021 graduate of Tier V. Major Ricker is a graduate of the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange Class 585, P.E.R.F. Senior Management Institute of Police Class 86, and GACP Chief Executive Training Class 25-78. He holds a bachelorette degree in Criminal Justice and is completing his master’s degree in Public Administration.