Each year, between 140 and 160 officers die in the line of duty and their families and co-workers are left to cope. C.O.P.S. provides resources to help them rebuild their shattered lives.

C.O.P.S. was organized in 1984 with 110 individual members. Today, C.O.P.S. membership is over 75,000 survivors. Survivors include spouses, kids, adult children, parents, siblings, fiancés, significant others, extended family (aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, grandchildren, grandparents, and in-laws), co-workers, and suicide survivors (as determined by the Public Safety Officer Support Act of 2022) of officers who have died 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.

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.

Locally, San Antonio is part of the South Texas C.O.P.S. Chapter let by Patrick Murnin (Retired SAPD).