Cops-R-Us (alliance)

Cops-R-Us is an alliance formed in . It later resurfaced and became the dominant alliance of .
In Cagayan, after Tony told Sarah that he was secretly a police officer, they agreed to form a secret alliance, with the goal of having two cops sitting at the end. When the police officers became separated due to a Tribe Switch, Sarah planned on staying loyal to Tony and her original tribe. However, after Sarah heard Tony scream "Top five, baby!" with her not being included in that five, she turned against Tony and stuck with the Solana Alliance. This backfired, however, as she attempted to play the middle, only to be taken out at the merge. Despite the betrayal, Sarah contributed to Tony's victory in the end.
While the two did not have an opportunity to work together in due to starting on opposing tribes and Tony's early elimination, Sarah would go on to win the season and credited her victory at the reunion show partially to learning from Tony's game.
In Winners at War, having been placed on the Dakal tribe together, Sarah and Tony set their differences aside and agreed to work together. They worked early on with their common Game Changers nemesis Sandra Diaz-Twine to help eliminate Amber Mariano and Tyson Apostol. Despite being separated after a Tribe Switch, Sarah was able to pull in Ben Driebergen and Sophie Clarke. In the early stages following the merge, Cops-R-Us controlled the first three votes, systematically eliminating Wendell Holland, Adam Klein, and Tyson (who had returned from the ). After Tony became weary of Sarah and Sophie's relationship, he secretly went against Sarah and voted Sophie out. Although Sarah was mad at Tony after Sophie's elimination, they continued to work together, voting out their opposition. At the final five, Ben willingly sacrificed his game for Sarah, allowing her to vote him out in attempt to gain more jury votes. After Natalie Anderson won the Final Immunity Challenge, she forced Sarah and Tony to compete against each other in the fire-making challenge, which Tony ultimately won, eliminating Sarah. At the Final Tribal Council, Sarah voted for Tony to win, contributing to him becoming the second two-time Sole Survivor.
Due to both members winning Survivor, the alliance producing a winner three times, as well as one of the members winning twice, this alliance can be considered as arguably one of the most successful alliances and pairs in Survivor history.
==Members==
===Cagayan===
	
===Winners at War===
	
====Affiliates====
				
==Alliance History==
===Cagayan===
====Formation====
Upon first seeing Tony Vlachos, Sarah Lacina immediately believed he was a police officer. Tony denied her claims, insisting that he was a construction worker. Her persistence eventually paid off though and Tony admitted to his profession. The two developed a friendship that would form Cops-R-Us.
====Failed Plan====
Aparri lived up to their "Brawn" tribe status by winning the first three Immunity Challenges, but Sarah felt that the time came to make a move. She recruited Tony, Trish Hegarty, and Woo Hwang to throw the challenge on Day 11 in an attempt to vote out physical and social threat Cliff Robinson. This plan failed however due to the challenge playing to Cliff's strengths as a former NBA player combined with Luzon's continued ineffectiveness in the challenge.
====Tony's Error====
At the Day 12 Tribe Switch, the pair was split apart: Sarah was left as the lone Brawn member on Aparri while Tony and the rest of the original Brawns was moved to the rival Solana tribe. Though Sarah initially believed that they would reunite as a pair come the merge, Sarah began to question her allegiance to Tony after he made a following his tribe's victory in the Day 16 Immunity Challenge where Tony yelled that his tribe will be the final five. Alarmed, Sarah started to think her future in the game might be better with the post-switch Aparri contingent. Though Sarah voted with the majority, Kass McQuillen remained unconvinced of her loyalty until she would target one of her fellow Brawns.
====Sarah's Downfall====
The tribes merged on Day 17 with Sarah's tribe having a 6-5 voting advantage over Tony's. Though reunited, Sarah and Tony, found themselves not fully trusting each other. The duo diverged and retreated into their post-swap alliances though Tony's side was still outnumbered and still needed a sixth vote or to correctly play Tony's Hidden Immunity Idol, the information of which was still unknown to Sarah. Realizing that Sarah's connections to both sides would make her a bigger threat down the line, Trish plotted against her by convincing Kass, the most suspicious of Sarah's loyalty, to steal the swing vote position from Sarah. In the end, the plan worked, and despite Tony and LJ McKanas playing their Hidden Immunity Idols came for each other, Kass swerved the vote against Sarah in a 6-5 blindside, patently ending Sarah and Tony's alliance.
====Tony's Victory====
Tony managed to make it to the Final Tribal Council. Despite the betrayal, Sarah voted for him to win the title of Sole Survivor over Woo Hwang.
===Game Changers===
While both Tony and Sarah returned in , they were on separate tribes, with Tony assigned on Mana and Sarah on Nuku. Further, Tony was voted out early on Day 6, thus the two were unable to rekindle their alliance in any capacity. Sarah would later win the season, which led to another reunion three years later in .
===Winners at War===
====Pre-Formation====
Both assigned to the Dakal tribe, Sarah and Tony reunited and made amends. The two worked with Sandra Diaz-Twine through their Game Changers connection and stayed in the majority on Dakal by joining forces with Nick Wilson, Sophie Clarke, Wendell Holland, and Yul Kwon against the rumored Poker Alliance. On Day 5, both Tony and Sarah agreed to work together again, with Tony promising that he would stick to the alliance this time around.
====Night Vision====
On Day 8, Sarah found a note in her bag telling her that there was a Vote Steal advantage hidden at the opposing Sele tribe's camp and that she would have to sneak to the other tribe that night to find it. Sarah accepted the challenge and recruited Tony help her. Tony assisted her by putting charcoal on her forehead in order to camouflage her skin before she set out that night. Sarah would successfully retrieve the Vote Steal advantage and return to Dakal's camp without being detected.
====Swap Trials====
When the Tribe Switch occurred on Day 12, Tony remained on Dakal, while Sarah was moved to Yara. Sarah was able to pull in Sophie and Ben Driebergen to combat a minority situation and take out the controlling Rob Mariano. Though Tony maintained a majority on Dakal with Sandra and Kim Spradlin-Wolfe, he was helpless when Denise Stapley played two Hidden Immunity Idols to blindside Sandra.
====Lions vs. Hyenas====
After reaching the merge on Day 19, the Tony and Sarah regrouped, now joined by Ben and Sophie. Tony pushed a culture emphasizing "lions" (those he perceived to be higher profile threats) working together against the "hyenas" (those he perceived to be lower profile players) to protect themselves. They joined the majority in taking out Wendell at the Koru tribe's first Tribal Council, then voted out Adam Klein at the next after hearing from Tyson Apostol that he was targeting Sarah. On Day 25, Sarah and Tony initially argued on who to target, as Tony wanted Tyson out, while Sarah wanted Kim out for being too dangerous. However, after Tony told her that Jeremy Collins was gunning for her, Sarah agreed to target Jeremy, with the alliance pulling in Nick for the upcoming vote. At Tribal Council, however, Jeremy used his Safety Without Power Advantage to leave Tribal Council. The alliance regrouped under Sophie's leadership and Sarah used her Vote Steal advantage to steal Denise's vote, ensuring that their group would have control of enough votes to split their votes between Tyson and Denise, sending Tyson out of the game.
====Tony's Second Betrayal====
On Day 28, Tony began gunning for Sophie, as he believed that Sophie was getting too close with Sarah. He roped in former ally Jeremy, and minority alliance members Nick and Michele Fitzgerald, and the four blindsided Sophie. While Sarah was initially furious at Tony for blindsiding Sophie and leaving her in the dark, Tony informed her that he had found an idol to regain her trust. The two re-affirmed their partnership and committed to working with each other. The next day, Tony brought back his "spy shack" strategy from Cagayan, evolving it to a "spy nest" and only telling Sarah about it.
====Back On Track====
After leading the charge to take out Sophie, Tony was targeted by the majority of the tribe. However, their plan was foiled when Tony won the next Immunity Challenge. After Ben informed Tony that Kim was the one who led the charge to take Tony out, Sarah, Tony, and Ben roped in Jeremy and Nick to vote out Kim at the next Tribal Council. Over the next few days, Sarah and Tony solidified an alliance with Ben and Denise, with the four successfully taking out Jeremy, then Nick, leaving only Michele on the outs.
====A New Threat====
After Natalie Anderson won the second re-entry duel on Day 35 to re-enter the game from the , she told the rest of the tribe that the jury respected Tony's game the most, in an attempt to put the target on Tony next. This infuriated Sarah, as she believed that she had been an equal partner to Tony throughout the game and that she was not being given credit due to her gender. After Michele won the next Immunity Challenge, Tony proposed to Sarah and Ben that they should split their votes between Denise and Natalie in case Natalie had a Hidden Immunity Idol, but Sarah and Ben were adamant that Natalie did not have anything. At Tribal Council, Natalie played an idol for herself, proving Tony right, which prompting Tony and Ben to play their idols. All votes against Ben and Natalie were negated, resulting in a null vote. At the restart, in which only Sarah and Denise were eligible to receive votes, Denise was unanimously voted out.
After Tony won the next Immunity Challenge, Sarah led Natalie to the water well, where Tony was secretly waiting in his "spy nest", to get Natalie to reveal that she had found another idol. This prompted Sarah, Tony, and Ben to target Michele next. However, Ben, feeling that he had no shot to win the game, gave Sarah permission to vote him out to help improve her resume. Sarah considered this, but resolved to leave Tony out, as she wanted to make a move against Tony in order to increase her chances of winning. At Tribal Council, Tony and Ben voted for Michele, while Sarah joined Michele and Natalie in voting out Ben, blindsiding Tony.
After Natalie won the Final Immunity Challenge, she decided to bring Michele with her to the end and pit Sarah against Tony in the fire-making challenge with the goal of Sarah winning and splitting up Cops-R-Us once and for all. In a close, matchup between the two allies, Tony was able to pull out the win, eliminating Sarah from the game. Tony became emotional, but Sarah comforted him and encouraged him to finish what he started.
====Tony Wins Again====
At the Final Tribal Council, Tony was credited for his strong gameplay and ability not to have any votes cast against him. Sarah voted for Tony, contributing to his historic second title of Sole Survivor, helping him defeat Natalie and Michele in a 12-4-0 vote.
==Gallery==
===Cagayan===
Sarah-vo.jpg|Sarah blindsided in .
Tonwins.jpg|Tony is the Sole Survivor of Survivor: Cagayan.
===Winners at War===
S40E14 SarahTony FMC2.jpg|Sarah and Tony compete against each other in the fire-making challenge in .
S40E14 Sarah VO.jpg|Sarah eliminated.
S40E14 TonyWins2.jpg|Tony is the Sole Survivor of Survivor: Winners at War.
==Trivia==
*In both seasons this alliance appeared in:
**Tony Vlachos outlasted Sarah Lacina and won.
**Tony and Sarah were on the same starting tribe, with the duo getting separated because of a tribe switch that occurred on Day 12.
**Tony contributed directly to Sarah's eliminations as he voted her out in Cagayan and defeated her at the Final Four fire-making challenge in .
**Sarah voted for Tony to win the game.
**The Final Four consisted of two original members of one tribe while the remaining two were original members from an opposing tribe.
**Tony set the record for most jury votes received in both of the Final Tribal formats.
**The merged tribe's color was black.
==References==
Category:Alliances
Category:Survivor (U.S.)
Category:Cagayan Alliances
Category:Survivor: Cagayan
Category:Aparri Tribe
Category:Winners at War Alliances
Category:Survivor: Winners at War
Category:Dakal Tribe
Category:Koru Tribe