FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Bill Leeper has dedicated his nearly 50 years in law enforcement to helping keep Northeast Florida safe.
His focus over the last 13 years has been on his home turf as the elected Sheriff of Nassau County, including the area in which he grew up -- Fernandina Beach.
RELATED: Veterans gather in Fernandina Beach to pay tribute to the community’s fallen heroes
“When I started, I never thought I would be here this long, I would enjoy it this much,” Leeper says of his illustrious career.
It started in 1977 with the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) where he spent 35 years.
He’s also served the city of Fernandina Beach as a commissioner and mayor.
Bill Leeper is also a small business owner, as well as a husband, father, and grandfather.
When asked what part of his career has brought him the most joy, he says it’s simply having been able to help people.
COMPLETE COVERAGE: 4 Your Neighborhood Fernandina Beach
“I want to make sure that our citizens and our employees are safe,” Leeper says matter-of-factly, “and we have the safest county we can have.”
Sheriff Leeper talked with News4JAX about the chances he’s witnessed over his lengthy career in Northeast Florida.
“Back when I was 8 or 9 years old, a neighborhood friend of mine, we would hitchhike, go out on the street, put our thumbs up, hitchhike to the beach, Main Beach area”, he says reminiscing, “and we’d hitchhike back home. We never thought about, you know, a child molester picking us up, like could happen today.
Of the Nassau County community he’s served since retiring from the Florida Highway Patrol, he says he is fortunate.
“We’re blessed to live in this community. Our community supports law enforcement. It’s not that way in every community, unfortunately, we can’t do our jobs without support of our citizens,” he explains.
Add author to Leeper’s list of accomplishments.
In his book, Highway of Horror, which he says he wrote to help people, especially teen drivers and parents of teens.
“Just about every crash, someone or something contributed to that crash and it was preventable,” he says adamantly. “So I wanted to talk about some of the crashes I’ve gone to, some of the people that were affected by those crashes, even when I was young, how I learned about death and in my own family.”
Sheriff Leeper was just 8 or 9 years old when two of his uncles died in two different crashes. His father, a Fernandina Beach police officer, also worked off-duty at a local funeral home. Leeper’s mother owned a beauty shop for 35 years, and also helped prepare the deceased for their funerals.
News4JAX asked Leeper about any specific highway crashes that he’ll always remember. He immediately told us about a time he was off-duty when a woman lost control on Interstate 95 and died after driving off the overpass at Pecan Park Road.
The victim was a woman Leeper had known since she was a little girl, so he later visited her home to give his condolences to the woman’s mother.
“They had called me about the crash, but I was doing something, and I didn’t go to the scene,” Leeper recalls as he fights back tears. “[Her mother] said she was watching the news, and they showed this crash. She said she was hoping they would have said, ‘Lieutenant Bill Leeper said, this...’ but you were not there.”
“So from then on,” Leeper says in almost a whisper, “every time I got a call there’s a fatal wreck, I went because somebody wanted to know somebody was there that cared for them. ”
You can listen to his full conversation with News Anchor Joy Purdy by clicking here. Purdy was the News4Jax Police Beat reporter when she met then FHP Public Information Officer Bill Leeper back in the mid-90s.
Leeper also talks about his childhood dream job playing baseball, which came true when he was drafted to the minor league by the New York Mets after he graduated from Fernandina Beach High School.