Peru officer still on patrol at 54 – and still loving it

Bill Sommer’s retirement, if it could even be called that, didn’t last very long.

He had tendered his papers with the Spring Valley Police Department and was about to ride off into the sunset as deputy chief. Then, his phone rang with an offer: Did he want to join Peru police as a part-time patrol officer?

It’s not often you find a 30-year veteran who still loves this job.”

—  Peru police Chief Sarah Raymond

Sommer didn’t have to think long. He loved his officers at Spring Valley, but he had no taste for the paperwork, less again for the harrowing cases he, as second in command, had to help investigate.

Riding in a police cruiser, however, was something he had always enjoyed in his 31 years as an officer. Sommer happily swapped his deputy chief’s shield for the keys to a squad car.

“It’s something I was born to do,” Sommer said.

At age 54, Sommer is thought to be the oldest active patrol officer in the Illinois Valley, although not the oldest to have served in Peru. That distinction belongs to former comrade Mark Credi, who called it a career at 56.

“Bill has a passion for being an officer,” Credi said. “To him, wearing the uniform doesn’t mean authority and power, it means, ‘I’m here to protect you and if you need my help.’

“He treats those he deals with either helping, ticketing or arresting with respect.”

The La Salle native may have been born to wear a badge, but Sommer’s father was slow to embrace the idea. Robert Sommer Sr. had founded G&B Disposal Inc. and wanted his two sons to follow him into the family business.

Although Robert Jr. would oblige his dad’s wishes, Bill had to swallow hard before announcing that he was going to be a cop.

“I know he was bummed out and disappointed,” Sommers said.

It was a good six years before his dad came around.

“Then he was very glad I did it,” Sommer said. “He saw it was what I needed to do.”

Sommer’s attraction to law enforcement shouldn’t have been a surprise. His uncle and cousin both had been police officers, and Sommer was a friendly and level-headed sort with a knack for getting people to cool off – a skill he tries to impart to young officers.

“I tell these young guys it’s about how you talk to people,” Sommer said. “It’s about communication. Remember to talk to people how you’d want to talk to your mom or your dad. You talk like that, and 90% of the time you have no problems.”

After studying at Illinois Valley Community College and the University of Illinois Police Training Institute, Sommer was sworn into the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office and took side jobs patrolling Lostant and Tonica.

Then, he got a call from Doug Bernabei, who’d moved home from Florida to become police chief in Spring Valley. For Bernabei, Sommer checked several boxes: a man of integrity who loved his job, his family and his community.

“If I could fill the ranks with people like Bill Sommer,” Bernabei remembered thinking, “we would have the best of the best.”

Sommer spent 25 years with Spring Valley. Although he rose steadily through the ranks, he stuck to patrols and avoided working undercover or as a detective.

Patrol certainly is stressful – “I’ve seen a lot of stuff,” Sommer said – but at the end of a shift, he could leave the day’s rigors behind him, a luxury not afforded to investigators laboring days or weeks on a case.

Sommer learned to manage his stress by exercising and, in his younger days, pickup basketball. Most important, however, was strong support at home.

“I have a great wife,” he said.

Sommer had known Amy Hash since they were seventh graders at Lincoln Junior High School. One night after graduation, Sommer popped into Midwest Video when Amy was working (her parents owned the video store) and asked her out. They were married three years later.

After a quarter-century at Spring Valley, Sommer was not burned out (far from it), but he had become pension-eligible for retirement and had recently become a grandfather.

“I thought I was done. I retired. I thought I was just going to enjoy my life,” he said.

But word circulated that a standout cop had a foot out the door, and Bernabei, at this time Peru police chief, got to him first.

“The ink wasn’t dry on the pension papers, and the first call he received was from me,” Bernabei said.

His appeal was a direct one: “Bill, I need you to come to Peru.”

Bernabei’s offer had come out of left field, but Sommer saw the wisdom in easing out of his dress blues. His six grandchildren (a seventh is on the way) command only a few hours a week, and Sommer had privately wondered how to fill the rest of his free time.

“I’m back having a lot of fun as a patrolman,” he said. “I love mentoring the younger guys.”

The latter task is especially important because the SAFE-T Act has been hard on police morale. Sommer is convinced that public opinion eventually will cycle back in police favor, but until then, he enters the break room watching for long faces. He reminds his junior comrades that police work is learn-as-you-go.

“Nobody’s perfect,” Sommer said. “We’re here to make mistakes. I tell them it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”

Part time didn’t last long, however. Police Chief Sarah Raymond hounded him to come on full time, and he yielded in November 2022.

“It’s not often you find a 30-year veteran who still loves this job,” Raymond said.

In truth, it wasn’t a hard sell. Sommer said he hopes to stick around another three years or so, only mildly curious as to whether he would be, at 57, the region’s oldest-ever patrol officer.

“I go day by day, month by month, year by year,” he said. “I’m loving it. God will tell me when it’s time.”