At age 56, he’s the oldest patrol officer at the Peru Police Department. Now, he’s a sergeant with no plans to retire any time soon.

Bill Sommer was installed as patrol sergeant Monday before the Peru City Council, which applauded not only his promotion but also his rare longevity.

“Bill Sommer loves being a police officer,” Police Chief Sarah Raymond said, introducing her newest sergeant to the council. “He has been doing this job for over 30 years and still is excited to come to work every day.

“He is a unicorn when it comes to being a police officer.”

Sommer had actually retired in 2019 as deputy chief of the Spring Valley Police Department, where he’d served 25 years, when he was asked to join Peru’s force. Sommer accepted and he’s still on patrol – and still enjoying it enough that he’ll stay on patrol while supervising his younger peers.

“I’m honored, to be honest with you,” Sommer said. “I can mentor the young guys and that’s one of the reasons I took the test. I have a lot of mentoring to do.”

The La Salle native studied at Illinois Valley Community College and then graduated from the University of Illinois Police Training Institute. Sommer was then 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. Bernabei invited Sommer to transfer to Spring Valley, where he spent the next 25 years.

After a quarter-century at Spring Valley, Sommer was not burned out, but he had become pension-eligible for retirement and had recently become a grandfather. (He and his wife Amy currently await the birth of their eighth grandchild.)

“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’s 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 had previously said.

Bernabei’s offer had come out of left field, but Sommer saw the wisdom in easing out of his dress blues. Since then, Sommer has passed Mark Credi for Peru’s in-house record for the oldest patrol officer. Sommer said he has no fixed retirement date.

“I’ll know when,” Sommer said. “When God says it’s time, it’s time. I have no date on the horizon.”