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The UK Police Unity Tour 2016 is a 170 mile cycle ride in aid of Care of Police Survivors (COPS).

The event will take place between the 29th-31st of July 2016 starting at The National Police Memorial on The Mall in London and finishing at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire.

The end of the event is designed to coincide with a memorial service attended by many of the families who have lost loved ones in the line of duty. Each rider will carry a memorial band inscribed with the details of a fallen colleague and will present the band to the family of that colleague at the end of the event; a small token in recognition of the sacrifice they have made and in memory of a cherished family member.

Care of Police Survivors (otherwise known as COPS) is a UK registered charity dedicated to helping the families of police officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty, rebuild their lives. It aims to ensure that survivors have all the help they need to cope with such a tragedy, and that they remain part of the police family.

COPS enables survivors to help survivors. Only another survivor can fully understand what new survivors endure, and that shared experience is the basis for the peer support programme.

COPS aims to build a network of survivors around the UK, developing the capability of having a local survivor as soon as required. The extent of help provided will be controlled by the new survivor. Sometimes an understanding listener is needed. Sometimes more practical help is required. Whatever the need, COPS will be able to put survivors in touch with those who truly understand.

COPS is independent of the police service and was founded in March 2003 by Jim McNulty and Christine Fulton (MBE). Jim was a retired police officer from Strathclyde Police. Christine is the widow of PC Lewis Fulton who was murdered on duty in Glasgow in 1994. Christine's experience of that tragedy gave her a unique understanding of the overwhelming grief and confusion that is encountered by new survivors. COPS makes contact with the survivors of every new line of duty death, explaining what COPS does and inviting survivors to make contact when they are ready for such support.

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