POLICE officers are flying to the USA to help raise money in memory of their fallen colleagues.

Three officers connected to Bromley police and another from Kingston will be cycling 300-miles from Portsmouth, Virginia, to Washington DC later this month.

All will be raising money for the charity UKCOPS - an organisation dedicated to helping the surviving families of police officers following the trauma of their death on duty.

They are the first British team of officers to take part in the event, which coincides with National Police Memorial Week.

Sergeant Lee Howes, Head of the Bickley Safer Neighbourhood Team, will be riding in memory of PC Kevin Fletcher, who left behind a six-month-old son, after he died in August last year when his motorbike was involved in a road collision.

Copers Cope Safer Neighbourhood Team sergeant, Gary Byfield, is riding in memory of PC Tokunbo Ezobi, killed in a road accident on New Year’s Day, 2003.

Mr Ezobi was returning from policing New Year’s Eve celebrations in London when his car was involved in a collision on the A23 in Sussex.

Sgt Byfield said: “The aim is to raise as much money for COPS as possible, both before and during the ride.

“Long after the headlines and publicity have been forgotten and life appears to have resumed to a normality to the outside world, the grief and despair of the loss of their loved ones goes on for friends and relatives.”

Former Bromley Chief Inspector, Rob Atkin, will also be taking part in the ride in memory of PC Jacqueline Ann Brown, a Herefordshire officer killed in 1989, aged 23, when her vehicle carrying a police prisoner crashed.

The officers leave for the US on Thursday, May 8 and return on Sunday, May 18.

To sponsor them please visit www.justgiving.com/UnityTour2008