I was walking through Pioneer Square today, and saw a cop on a horse stop in front of a tourist family and ask the kid, “wanna pet my horse?” Now, putting aside the infinite possibilities for comebacks to that offer, does that mounted cop have any non-tourism practicality? Enough to justify what must surely be an expensive program?
Mounted cops are wonderful for crowd control. Where a single cop would get swamped, a single cop on a horse can move, push and control. The added height allows the officer to see trouble coming, and most people naturally shy away from a big animal. Especially city-folk, who think rats are “large animals.”
Mounted Police are very effective.
What silenus said. There is a certain gravitas about a police officer on horseback that makes people compliant.
There was one police horse in Sydney that was trained to very gently pick up one leg and tap pedestrians on the shoe if they looked like they were about to step off the sidewalk against the lights. It was cool and very effective, but this was twenty years ago, and the cops would probably get sued for assault or some bloody thing now.
Well, I would say that horses can go places (narrow alleyways, crowds, etc) that cars cannot. They are probably safer than motorcycles in these instances. They are also used (I’m guessing) to allow the cops to see over crowds (I know when I went to Mardi Gras in NO, they had mounted cops on ever corner.)
Increased visibilty, speed to catch an escaping criminal, intimidation in crowd control, plus a nostalgia factor and possible tourist attraction, to name a few.
I see I was beaten to the punch. Twice.
Horses are also useful for patrolling large parks, because they can easily go “off road” to get to problem areas in a hurry.
[quote=silenus]
Mounted cops are wonderful for crowd control.This is the big 'un.
We have a mounted squad of about a half-dozen that mainly patrols Stanley Park and the surrounding area.
The advantages are:
Height-above-ground. Officers have a much better view of what’s going on.
Horses are imposing. People get the hell out of the way.
Mobility. There’s a lot of footpaths and trails that horses can manage. If need be, horses can pursue and overtake people here.
They seem quaint, and add a pleasant ambience as well as security.
Lots of folks quickly concurring here, I see. 
Yep. Any more, and we would be beating a…
Never mind.
“Flogging” surely?
Horses are intimidating in scale, and anything that can kick my heart through my spine has my automatic respect. They’ve been used very successfully in battles for thousands of years, so a bit of crowd control is almost a busman’s holiday* for them. Which is strange, considering they’re so hairtriggerdly nervous, and will usually spook on the smallest rustling of a leaf.
*Keen busmen go on bus holidays.
Yeah, I know about the crowd control thing; shoulda mentioned it in the OP. The reason I didn’t is twofold:
First, there was no crowd. This was a normal weekday afternoon on a retail street.
Second, OK, crowd control. Explain that. How does a guy on a horse have any greater effect dealing with a crowd than a couple guys in riot gear? or whatever. I mean, you always hear “crowd control,” but I’m not sure I see the value, even there. Is the little added height really worth maintaining what must be a very expensive program? That seems a little like the Grinch taking the whole tree back to the factory because one little bulb had burned out.
“We need our officers to see over the crowd.”
“I know! Put em on a horse!”
“Genius! Set up a stables, then let’s buy a bunch of horses. We’ll need all that eqipment, and trainers, and we’ll need a bunch of cops dedicated to the mounted division. Plus those funny pants, with the cartoon thighs.” Etc.
Is that not a bit on the side of overkill, just for little added height?
I guess I’m just wondering, in these budget conscious times, you KNOW some city councilman somewhere has said, “Let’s cut the mounted police program, we can save a bundle,” but obviously this hypothetical cost cutter has always been shot down. What justifications do you imagine being used to keep the cops mounted? I have to imagine that nostalgia and image have to rank near the top of those justifications.
Not that I have a problem with them; it just got me thinking what kind of things are somehow immune from budgetary disciplinarians.
You could, but would anyone actually buy it?
As we recently saw in NO, they can also be used for blocking people with inconvenient video cameras.
BTW, has anyone ever seen a mounted police moving at any kind of speed?
I’ve seen video of a New York mounted cop chasing a crook through a park. He got up to a good gallop there for a bit. Can’t say how often that kind of thing happens, but I’d bet it isn’t unusual.
Here’s a fairly recent thread addressing this same issue.
Ummmmm… horses are much bigger, taller, stronger, faster and heavier than any human. They can crush your skull without putting too much effort into it - they used to train calvary horses to do just that.
You should see them in action in New Orleans at the end of Mardi Gras. At exactly 12:01 on that Tuesday night (by that point, Ash Wednesday), the party is officially over. The cops line up… I dunno… 10 or a dozen horses per line, three lines deep. They start at one end of Bourbon Street and walk to the other. Basically, there’s nowhere else for people to go. Think about it - 10 horses lined up in the street - where are you supposed to stand in all that?
Well, have you ever really, truly, deeply contemplated what the idea of making cops wear stilts would entail? I mean, without breaking out laughing, that is.
The thing I have to wonder is why the police horses get to crap all over the streets, when the horse carriages have to wear little crap recepticles. It really annoys me, as I bike through those streets, and horse crap is smelly slippery crap lying in the middle of downtown streets with no crowds that need controlling.