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COPS Helps Families of Slain Officers
Journalist and LELDF Board Member Eugene Methvin (center) poses with Suzie Sawyer (left), Executive Director of Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS) and Molly Winters, President, at the COPS Police Week annual luncheon. LELDF recently made a large donation to COPS to support its work.
Summer 2002 at the Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, was COPS’ largest Summer Camp to date, with 71 survivors of officers killed in the line of duty attending. Participating were children aged 6-14 and their surviving parent. COPS has hosted this annual event since 1995.
“Rebuilding Shattered Lives” is the motto of Concerns of Police Survivors, Inc. (COPS), a nationwide non-profit organization providing resources to help the survivors of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty. COPS was founded in 1984 with 110 members. Today COPS membership has more than 11,000 families, including spouses, children, parents, in-laws, and co-workers of officers who died on the job. COPS reports that in 2001, one law enforcement officer was killed every 39 hours. COPS welcomes survivors as members and charges no fee to join. “The price paid is already too high,” according to its Website, www.NationalCops.org, which has information on the group’s many activities.
One of the major yearly activities of COPS is to coordinate survivors’ participation in the various events of National Police Week in Washington, D.C. There is a candlelight vigil every May 13 and a National Police Officers Memorial Service on May 15. COPS sponsors a National Police Survivors Conference on May 14 and 16. “One of the most useful aspects of the conference is the networking between recently bereaved survivors and older survivors,” explained Suzie Sawyer, Executive Director of COPS. “The ‘new’ survivors gain a tremendous amount of support from their peers.”
In addition to the yearly national conference, COPS hosts a summer camp for children and the surviving parent at Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. This beautiful rural setting is also the venue for a series of retreats for surviving spouses, parents of slain police officers, siblings, adult children, and even in-laws. COPS also has its own Outward Bound week-long program for ages 15-21.The summer camps and retreats provide a chance for survivors to meet other survivors and to hear presentations from mental health professionals on how to cope with the sudden and traumatic losses that these police families have experienced.
LELDF recently presented COPS with a donation to assist with its many projects. “Our Board of Directors is pleased and proud to support COPS,” said LELDF Chairman, David Martin. “We know personally the shock and trauma that each family endures when suddenly confronted with the death of a loved one. COPS provides a tremendous support mechanism that is invaluable in helping families to cope with the loss of police officers slain in the line of duty.”
