ABOUT C.O.P.S.

___________________

Each year, between 140 and 160 officers are killed in the line of duty, and their families and co-workers are left to cope with the tragic loss.  C.O.P.S. provides resources to help them rebuild their shattered lives.  There is no membership fee to join C.O.P.S., for the price paid is already too high.

C.O.P.S. was organized in 1984 with 110 individual members.  Today C.O.P.S. membership is over 51,000 survivors.  Survivors include spouses, children, parents, siblings, significant others, and affected co-workers of officers killed in the line of duty according to Federal government criteria.  C.O.P.S. is governed by a national board of law enforcement survivors.  All programs and services are administered by the national office in Camdenton, Missouri.  C.O.P.S. has over 50 chapters nationwide that work with survivors at the grass-roots level.

candle light at capital
C.O.P.S. programs for survivors include the National Police Survivors’ Conference held each May during National Police Week, scholarships, peer-support at the national, state, and local levels, the “C.O.P.S. Kids” counseling reimbursement program, the “C.O.P.S. Kids” Summer Camp, the “C.O.P.S. Teens” Outward Bound experience for young adults, special retreats for spouses, parents, siblings, adult children, extended family, and co-workers, trial and parole support, and other assistance programs.

C.O.P.S. knows that a survivor’s level of distress is directly affected by the agency’s response to the tragedy.  C.O.P.S., therefore, offers training and assistance to law enforcement agencies nationwide on how to respond to the tragic loss of a member of the law enforcement profession.  C.O.P.S. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  C.O.P.S. programs and services are funded by grants and donations.

The Ohio Chapter of C.O.P.S was chartered in May of 1999 by Linda Pope, the surviving spouse of Cincinnati (OH) police officer Daniel Pope, EOW Dec. 5, 1997. The chapter is governed by a national board of law enforcement survivors, and our programs and services are administered by the national office in Camdenton, Missouri.