The mounted police cost the city about $350,000 annually, and were slated for cuts in the city manager’s recent recommended budget.
But the horses are quite popular with tourists and locals alike, as seen in the public uproar on social media once the cuts were announced. And they certainly turn heads when they clop down Water Street.
Addressing a crowd of curious tourists, Officer Brian Campbell explains a bit about his partner, Ranger. "He's 17 [hands]," Campbell said. "He's a tall hill to climb whenever I'm getting on him.”
Adorably, the tawny horse has a police badge on his breast collar.
The mounted police unit has been around since 1989, and includes four horses and four mounted officers. They work four nights a week, and the officers feed and care for their horse partners on their days off, too. Mounted Officer Jason Watts says it’s a unique partnership.
"I mean, when you spend as much time with an animal as we do, you really do develop a bond, a partnership," he said. "It's a very unique thing. It's a very special thing to be able to do this for your job.”
Some downtown residents assume the horses aren’t there for much more than public outreach, especially for the tourists. But Campbell says that’s not true. He’s arrested people from the saddle.
"I'll kind of as much as I can, raise them up and kind of put their arm, their armpit right here, and kind of lever their arm over the saddle, and then I'll hook, you can't go anywhere when I got you like that,” he explained. Typically, mounted officers will nab a suspect, then call for backup to have an officer in a car drive them to the jail.
Asking business owners up and down Front Street, two confirmed that they’ve witnessed arrests on horseback. One employee of the Gourmet Market was effusive in her praise of the mounted police, though she asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons.
"I had a man that came into our store. I thought that he had a gun, and he was looking very suspicious. I was already on the phone with 911, and luckily, I had my door opened and the mounted horse policemen were outside, just roaming the streets, and I called them, and they were quick to respond, and were able to apprehend the suspect that was in our store that was suspicious and arrest him for what he did," she said.
She shared a video of an officer holding a man in cuffs from the saddle — proof, she said, that the officers aren’t just a tourist attraction.
But other downtown business owners say that isn’t such a bad thing. Gwenyfar Rohler is a managing partner of Old Books on Front, and supports the mounted police.
“As opposed to having police officers in cars, which feel very removed, small children who want to go up and pet a horse, I know this is an opportunity to talk," she explained. "And if we're trying to build a bridge between WPD and the community, this is an easy entry way to do that.”
Others do criticize the unit, however, saying it’s unreasonable to employ animals in traffic or that it’s a waste of resources. Olivia Gillespie works at a coffee shop downtown, and opposes the program.
"I think there are plenty of other ways to erase that stigma. I also think that putting horses to work in the streets, especially in the heat, is cruel and unusual and pointless in this modern society that we have,” she said.
In recommending cuts to the horse unit, city staff pointed out they are limited by weather conditions and the horses are somewhat expensive to house, feed, and transport — and those financial resources could be better used for other things.
Of course, the recommendations also include an additional $6 million for debt service, largely because of the purchase of the Skyline Center for $68 million in 2023. The city is still trying to sell off surplus land to pay for that cost.
The budget for debt service has gone up 48% since 2021, while the budget for police has risen by 17%. Staff say they’ll try to use cost-saving measures to invest in higher pay for all city employees, first responders included.
