A man walked into the Peru Police Department with a problem: his firearm owner ID had been revoked and without it he’d never get his coveted job as a security officer. Could anybody help him?

Ed DeGroot happened to be on duty that day and was able to assist him. DeGroot looked up some resources, pointed him in the right direction and told him what he needed to get done in order to get reinstated. DeGroot soon forgot all about it.

“And two or three years later, I ran into him down on the 3rd of July fireworks,” DeGroot recalled. “He came up to me, shook my hand, told me that he was able to get his FOID card back. He got the job as a security guard, and it changed his life. He just wanted to thank me.

“It’s very rare that people come back up to you years later and thank you,” he said, “but when it does happen, and it does, it makes all the other stuff bearable.”

Such moments have helped DeGroot through the tough days that come with being a patrol officer. In his decades of service to Peru – first in EMS, then as a dispatcher, and then on patrol – DeGroot always loved helping people, but hasn’t always felt the love returned.

One of the tougher days was when he assisted with a lockout. The motorist who’d locked his keys in the car pointed to his watch and demanded to know why DeGroot took 20 minutes getting to the scene. The heartbreaking answer: DeGroot had been consoling a couple whose child had died suddenly.

“He had no idea that I’d just spent my whole morning dealing with the death of a child,” he said. “Those kinds of things really give you a sour taste about the things that we have to do.”

The 61-year-old Peru native has retired, effective Jan. 2, and in no way is he leaving embittered or broken. But after 40 years’ service to the city of Peru, most of it in ambulances or squad cars, DeGroot decided to call it a career.

“I stayed longer than most guys do. I was 31 when I got hired as an officer. So I’m 61, and it was time.”

His parents, Wanda and Ed DeGroot Sr., met in the U.S. Navy while stationed in Pensacola, Florida. Wanda followed Ed Sr. back to his hometown in Peru, where they raised a daughter and two sons, both of whom gravitated to Peru police. (Sgt. Scott DeGroot is nine years younger than Ed and remains on the force.)

The future Sgt. Ed DeGroot was a wrestler and sports fan who hoped to find work as an athletic trainer after graduating from Illinois State University in 1988. The two local hospitals didn’t immediately have such a position and DeGroot wanted to stay close to home, so he shifted gears and decided to try EMS.

He joined Peru Volunteer Ambulance Service in 1985 and was an EMT for 12 years. When the city implemented an enhanced 911 system in 1990, then-Chief Don Clausen wanted dispatchers with a medical background to relay life-saving instructions to callers. DeGroot fit the bill perfectly and spent the next five years at dispatch.

It was satisfying work, but as he interacted with patrol officers it dawned on him he had the same skill set.

“I thought, ‘I could do that,’” he recalled. “I mean, if I’m not gonna be able to find an athletic training job here -- I didn’t want to move to Chicago or Rockford or Peoria, I wanted to stay here -- then I needed to find something to do.”

After finishing first in the testing, he was hired as a patrol officer in 1995. He’s largely stayed on the roads. He dabbled in investigations but he enjoyed the diverse challenges of being in the field.

“It’s always evolving,” he said. “It’s always something different.”

Along the way, he served as a mentor to many young officers – including the current chief.

“He personally taught me the ins and outs of this job as he was my field training officer 23 years ago,” Chief Sarah Raymond recalled. “His knowledge of this profession far surpasses most, and he will be greatly missed at this department. I wish him all the best and my utmost respect and thanks for all he has done.”

“Ed DeGroot always had a quiet yet stabilizing command presence,” agreed Lt. Doug Bernabei, a former police chief. “His subordinates could count on his guidance, fairness and sound judgment. He was no doubt a great sergeant. He served us all well.”

DeGroot said he has no special plans for retirement. Mainly, he wants to spend more time with wife Christie, a dispatcher for Peru police, and their teenage sons Evan and Owen, neither of whom has professed any interest in law enforcement.

The job isn’t for everyone. DeGroot has weathered tough times and has pointed advice for those entering law enforcement.

“You need to make your family a priority, because you want them there when you get to the end of this,” he said. “You want your family, your wife, your husband, your kids, to be there at the end. And you need to take care of yourself. You can’t be so busy doing everything for everybody else that you forget to take care of yourself.”

He’s held to that, but after so many years in the field the physical challenges have grown more taxing.

“I keep getting older and as the criminals get older they get replaced by younger criminals,” DeGroot said. “ And I can’t keep up with them anymore. It’s just physically impossible for me to go to a bar fight and wrestle with a 23-year-old drunk guy. It’s a younger man’s game for that kind of stuff.”