One Georgia Northwestern Technical College (GNTC) Basic Law Enforcement (BLE) graduate’s conviction is to overcome the road blocks life puts in his way.

Marcus Hill attended classes on GNTC’s Gordon County Campus in Calhoun and graduated in November 2013 with the Academic (Honor Graduate) Award for the highest academic average in his BLE training class. He is currently the interim chief of police for the Atlanta Metropolitan State College Police Department.

“My career thus far has been one entrenched with adversity, road blocks and broken barriers,” Hill said. “I tend not to focus on awards received or things accomplished because there is still so much more to do.”

Becoming a police officer was always a childhood dream as he grew up in Powder Springs, he said, so he became a Law Enforcement Explorer at age 14 with the Powder Springs Police Department and later with the Hiram Police Department, where he rose to the ranks of chief and lieutenant, respectively; the Law Enforcement Exploring program, also called Police Explorers, allows qualified young adults ages 14-21 to explore law enforcement career opportunities by working with local law enforcement agencies. He also served as captain of the McEachern High School security team while a student, he said.

At 19 he had a young child and another on the way as he attended GNTC’s Law Enforcement Academy during the day and worked a full-time civilian job with the City of Hiram at night. He said GNTC’s program appealed to him as one of only a small handful of programs that would allow a pre-service candidate (not currently sponsored by an agency) to apply under the age of 21.

“I still remember sleeping in my car some nights in the parking lot of the campus on my off nights from the city because I could not afford the gas at times for the frequent trips back and forth from Powder Springs,” he said.

Hill said he began working at his current employer in August 2018. He was promoted to rank of captain (assistant chief of police) on Jan. 1 and on April 1 was named interim chief of police.