Ground has been broken on a $2.5 million stable for the country's oldest continuously operating mounted police unit. The Baltimore Sun reports Baltimore and B&O Railroad Museum officials attended the ceremonial groundbreaking on September 18, 2018. The 130-year-old Baltimore police mounted unit consists of six horses, deployed for crowd control at 175 events last year.
Mounted police in Trafalgar Square, London
Ground has been broken on a $2.5 million stable for the country's oldest continuously operating mounted police unit in Baltimore, Maryland.
© 2008 by Arriva436
Baltimore is not alone in having a mounted police unit. Mounted police continue to serve in remote areas and in metropolitan areas throughout the USA and in many countries including the UK 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 for crime prevention and high visibility policing roles.
With one horse set to retire, Baltimore and B&O Railroad Museum will donate up to $13,000 to augment the force by two horses.For the past four decades, the unit has operated out of a former car dealership downtown. The new facility is on the museum's 40-acre property in southwest Baltimore. Construction is set to begin in November.
The added height and visibility that the police horses give their riders allows officers to observe a wider area, but it also allows people in the wider area to see the officers, which helps deter crime and helps people find officers when they need them.
Mounted police may be employed for specialized duties ranging from patrol of parks and wilderness areas where police cars would be impractical or noisy. Mounted police units also are used for riot duty, where the horse serves to intimidate and disperse crowds through its larger size, or mounted police may be sent in to detain trouble makers or separate offenders from the crowd.
In addition horse mounted patrols are assigned to Federal Parks in Washington, DC, New York City, and San Francisco and in other areas. These nationally acclaimed officers and mounts are highly respected for crowd management techniques. They also function to maintain order during major demonstrations and special events and have been transported to other sites in the National Park system to control demonstrations.