CHAMPAIGN, IL (CHAMBANA TODAY)- The lamppost previously sat in West Side Park, from 1913 to 2010 making it the first police memorial in Champaign County. The memorial, previously held at public works now resides in the lobby of the Champaign County Police Department.
The lamp fitted with a glass police globe, honors the longstanding design tradition seen outside of many police departments around the country. It’s also been fitted with a blue light to honor Police Concerns of Police Survivors a nonprofit 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. This organization supported the Champaign County Police Department in 2021 when they experienced the loss of multiple officers. The light is a reminder of the 3 Champaign officers who passed away of duty.