Mounted police

Not to be confused with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

A mounted police officer passes Buckingham Palace, London.

A policeman riding a camel in Giza, Egypt

Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback (equestrians) or camelback. They continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas where their day-to-day function may be picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in the UK for crime prevention and high visibility policing roles. Mounted police may be employed for specialized duties ranging from patrol of parks and wilderness areas, where police cars would be impractical or noisy, to riot duty, where the horse serves to intimidate those whom it is desired to disperse through its larger size, or may be sent in to snatch trouble makers or offenders from the crowd. For example, in the UK, mounted police are most often seen at football matches, although they are also a common sight on the streets of many towns and cities as a visible police presence and crime deterrent during the day and night. Some mounted police units are trained in search and rescue due to the horse's ability to travel where vehicles cannot.

A well-known mounted police force is the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The RCMP now uses standard police methods and does not use any horses operationally. However, horses are used in the Musical Ride as well as by several provincial and municipal police detachments. In the United States, mounted patrols are still essential to local law enforcement operations.

The U.S. Border Patrol had 200 horses in 2005. Most of these are employed along the U.S.-Mexico border. In Arizona, these animals are fed special processed feed pellets so that their wastes do not spread non-native plants in the national parks and wildlife areas they patrol.^[1] The Houston, Texas Police Department's Mounted Patrol Unit has become increasingly well known due to the decision to, over time, remove the shoes of all its mounted horses and embrace the concept of naturalizing their horses' diet and care in addition to riding them barefoot.^[2]

Equipment

Australian mounted police officers on standby at a peaceful demonstration. Note the facial armour and reflective shin guards.

Tack used by mounted police is similar to standard riding tack, with adaptations for police use. Synthetic saddles are often favored over those made of natural leather to reduce weight, important both because of long riding hours and because police officers must carry numerous articles of personal equipment. High-traction horseshoes made of speciality metals or fitted with rubber soles are typically used in urban areas in place of standard steel horseshoes, which are prone to slip on pavement. Rubber soled shoes also produce less noise than steel shoes and jar the hoof less. Horses working in riot control wear facial armor, made of perspex so that the animals can still see. The officers themselves are often equipped with especially long wooden or polycarbonate batons for use on horseback, as standard patrol batons would have insufficient length to strike individuals at ground level.

See also

• List of mounted police forces
• Mounted search and rescue
• Police paddock
• Paddock Paradise

References

1. ^ "Border Patrol Horses Get Special Feed that Helps Protect Desert Ecosystem". Enn.com. 2005-06-09. http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/1731. Retrieved 2011-10-18. 
2. ^ "MountedPatrol.pub" (PDF). http://www.aanhcp.net/MountedPatrol_HiRes1.pdf. Retrieved 2011-10-18. 

External links

• Informational site for mounted police officers
• List of mounted search and rescue units
• Mounted Police in France