One city in North Fulton travels nearly a thousand miles to find new officers

ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Finding and hiring enough police officers is a constant challenge for departments all over the metro.

Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach was in North Fulton County with how one department is taking recruiting on the road.

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With police departments in North Fulton County in competition to hire new officers, Alpharetta took their entire recruitment and hiring process on the road to New Jersey. They needed to fill more than a dozen openings.

The very first hire from that event in July was just sworn in as a new Alpharetta police officer in front of city hall Monday morning.

Thirty-year-old Shenique Rosario is from New York City. “Actually ended up here, which is amazing,” she said. “(The) entire process has been great and (I’m) happy to be here.”

Rosario says she always wanted to be a law enforcement officer and join the New York Police Department. She made her dream a reality and served with the department for the last five years.

But she says the job got monotonous and she didn’t agree with some of the policies, so when she saw the Alpharetta Police Department would be recruiting in nearby New Jersey, she applied.

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How different are the two places? “It’s like night and day from where I came from… I love it out here,” Rosario said. “…seeing how generous and nice people are here, (it’s) completely different from where I come from.”

She’ll be training for a couple more weeks, then will go out on patrol, first with a field training officer, then by herself.

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Alpharetta Police Capt. Jakai Braithwaite, who put together the recruitment initiative in the New York metro area, pinned on Rosario’s badge during the short ceremony. He says she was able to come aboard so quickly because she’s already a certified officer and doesn’t need to go through another academy.

He says another 10 recruits from the northeast are in the pipeline, after APD tested more than two dozen candidates over two days in New Jersey. “Because of this initiative that we had, we are literally able to fill all our vacancies,” said Braithwaite. “When we brought this process there, we sold our city, we sold our organization.”

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