Assistant Chief Joseph Rickman has been in public service since age 17 when he joined the Georgia Army National Guard as an Infantryman. In 1990, the then-19-year-old became a Department of Corrections officer at Lee Arrendale State Prison in Alto, Georgia.

Three years later, Rickman joined the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, working in the jail before transferring to the Uniform Patrol Division in 1995. He became a member of the Covington-Newton County SWAT team working in several assignments, including completing POST SWAT Certification and Counter Sniper Level 1 at GPTSC.

In 1998, he transferred to the Newton County District Attorney’s Office under then-District Attorney Alan Cook. In that office, Rickman served as lead investigator on the first-ever state prosecution of voter fraud, worked on four death penalty cases, and assisted with narcotics investigations with the East Metro Drug Enforcement Unit.

At Troy State University, he completed his bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice in 2004 and his Master of Criminal Justice in 2013. In 2019, he completed the Certified Public Manager Program at the University of Georgia.

Rickman was hired in 2005 by then-Fulton County Attorney O.V. Brantley as the first investigator for that office and won the 2006 Employee of the Year. He then became an investigator at the Fulton County Public Defender’s Office and promoted to Chief Investigator in 2017. In August 2021, Rickman joined the Major Crimes Division at the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.