Officers gather in Raleigh for 500-mile bike ride to honor fallen members

The group of bikers, which is made up of active and retired officers from 20 agencies from North Carolina, Maryland, Minnesota, Texas and Virginia, gathered at Raleigh City Hall starting at 6 a.m.

The ride started at 7:30 a.m. with a stop at State Patrol Headquarters in Raleigh at their memorial wall for fallen officers. The group will bike to Chesapeake, Virginia, where they'll meet more than 250 other officers before heading to Washington. The entire trip is more than 500 miles.

The ride, which is part of National Police Week, will use money raised from the event to send surviving children and spouses to a summer camp.

This will be the bicycle trek's sixth consecutive year.