Mounted police - Wikiwand

Australia

Australia, being a large country and not densely populated, commonly used mounted police in order to traverse the country side. All of the Mounted police units were formed in the 19th century and have continued to this day, excepting Tasmania.

• The New South Wales Mounted Police is a mounted section of the New South Wales Police Force, and the oldest continuous mounted group in the world,^[10] formed on 7 September 1825. Currently they have a strength of 36 officers and around 38 mounts and their duties include traffic and crowd management, patrols, and ceremonial protocol duties.^[11]
• The "Mounted Branch", or The Victorian Police Mounted Branch was formed in 1838 as the Mounted Police Fifth Division which consisted of soldiers from infantry regiments. The Unit has 26 officers and more than 20 mounts.
• The Western Australian Mounted Police Branch was formed in 1834 and continues operation to this day.^[12] It is the second oldest Mounted police Branch in the world after that of New South Wales.
• The Mounted Police of the South Australian Police force, known as "The Greys" due to the fact they only use grey horses, dates back to the start of the state's police force when it was originally formed of half mounted and half foot police, in 1838.^[13] The Mounted police also used Camels up until 1951.
• Tasmanian Police used horses for riding and teams of Tasmanian Tigers ^{[citation needed]} pull sleds through Alpine (high country) territory in Winter. Both sleds ^[14] and horses were dropped in favour of motorbikes, when the Police department purchased 84 departmentally owned motorcycle and sidecar units during late 1935 early 1936.
• The Northern Territory Police has a mounted unit, which dates back to the late 19th century.

Canada

Mounted police units were used in Canada during the 19th century to carry out peace officer duties across vast and sparsely inhabited areas. The predecessors to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Royal North-West Mounted Police, relied on using mounted riders from its inception in 1873 to carry out their policing duties across the Prairies. These mounted police were frequently the only government officials in the area.^[15]

Police services in Montreal and Toronto also formed their own mounted police units in the 1880s to cover larger areas in their cities. The Service de police de la Ville de Montréal formed its cavalry unit in 1885 to patrol several roads and park and act as an express mail service between the service's stations.^[16] The Toronto Police Service formed its mounted unit in 1886 to provide a police presence in outlying areas of the city that seldom saw police prior to the unit's introduction.^[17] Both services also used their mounted units to enforce traffic laws during the early advent of automobilies.^[16][17]

The RNWMP's reliance on mounted police units declined significantly after the First World War due to automobiles. Although the RCMP's increasingly relied on motorised vehicles for its work in the 1920s and 1930s, equestrian training remained a centrepiece of its recruit training regimen at RCMP Training Academy until 1966.^[18] As of 2024, the RCMP maintains a single troop of 32 riders, the Musical Ride. However, they are an equestrian showcase unit that does not perform any regular police duties.^[15]

Municipal police services continued to use mounted police in the 1920s and 1930s for crowd management duties, with the Toronto Police Service and Vancouver Police Department's mounted units growing in size during the Great Depression due to the increasing demonstrations and riots taking place.^[17][19] Toronto and Vancouver's mounted units also saw significant use for crowd control during the 1960s and 1970s.^[17][19]

Police services in Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver continue to maintain mounted units for community patrols and crowd management at large events.^{[16][17][19][20][21]} As of 2024, the Toronto Police Service Mounted Unit is Canada's largest mounted police unit that performs operational duties, made up of 24 horses. Toronto's mounted police unit is primarily tasked with community patrols, although they also conduct vehicular stops, assist with searches, and provide crowd management support, particularly in the city's Entertainment District.^[22]

India

The Kolkata Police maintain the Kolkata Mounted Police force which was established in 1840. As of 2024, it has a strength of 2 inspectors, one sergeant-major, 10 sergeants, one JCO, five head sowars, 85 sowars and 98 syces. The force operates 68 horses under 2 stables (one on S N Banerjee Road with a capacity of 70 and the other in Diamond Harbour with 32 horses). The force is deployed currently to regulate crowds in Maidan area in sporting and other events and also showcased in ceremonial events like Republic Day parade in front of Raj Bhavan.^[23][24][25]

Oman

The Royal Oman Police have many horse- and camel-mounted troopers.^{[citation needed]}

United Kingdom

There are thirteen mounted police sections in the UK. The mounted sections support policing in specialist operations, major incidents, and anti-social behaviour. A mounted officer's responsibilities may include liaising with rural and urban communities on horseback or situations that may attract large crowds such as at sporting and cultural events or at demonstrations. Mounted sections also participate in ceremonial duties.^[26] The Bow Street Horse Patrol, founded in 1763, are the oldest uniformed police force in the world. They were formally incorporated into the Metropolitan Police in 1836. Today the Metropolitan Police Mounted Branch is the mounted section of the Metropolitan Police, the police force of Greater London (excluding the City of London, where the separate City of London Police has its own mounted branch). The Metropolitan Police Mounted Branch undertakes crowd control duties, especially at football matches, but also conducts general street patrols and escorts the Royal Guard change at the London's royal residences.

United States

Many cities in the United States have mounted units, New York having one of the largest with 55 horses as of 2016,^[27] The Houston, Texas Police Department's Mounted Patrol Unit was started in 1983 and now consists of 1 lieutenant, 4 sergeants and 24 officers. It has become increasingly well known due to the decision to remove the shoes of all its 38 mounted horses and embrace the concept of naturalizing their horses' diet and care.^[28][29]

Several American mounted units were disbanded or downsized in the 2010s.^[30] For example, units in Boston and San Diego were disbanded by 2011, while New York City's mounted unit was reduced considerably over the last decade with 79 police officers and 60 horses in 2011 – down from the 130 officers and 125 horses it had before the downsizing.^[1] Philadelphia's mounted police unit was disbanded in 2004, but reinstated in 2011 with four horses from the disbanding unit of Newark, New Jersey.

The United States 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.^[31]