MANCHESTER, NH – officers Kelly McKenney
Friends of the Manchester Mounted Unit is a non profit organization set up to support the mounted unit of the Manchester New Hampshire Police DepartmentCapable of working in all weather and all terrains, the mounted units patrols the downtown area, parks, schools and areas not easily accessible by conventional means.
One of the main advantages of using a mounted patrol is the enhanced field of view that the officer has due to height advantage. This sight advantage gives the officers the opportunity to make observations of violations that might have gone undetected by an officer in a cruiser.
Over the years, the Mounted Unit has acted as goodwill ambassadors for the police department. The horses attract people stop by and pet them, invariably leading to talking with the officers. This interaction often leads to exchanges of information between the officers and citizens, thus having a positive impact on public relations and enhancing the community-policing initiative.
The Mounted Unit also participates in a variety of community events and often invited to participate at school, nursing home and community group functions. Each visit is tailored to meet the age of the audience. Any request for mounted unit presence must be made via mail addressed to the Chief of Police.
Sadly, these three units are the last in New Hampshire. The reason? Cost and care, which is expensive and labor-intensive.
Manchester’s horses eat 50 pounds of hay per day plus a ration of grain, need daily head-to-tail grooming, and must be reshod frequently with special shoes so they stay sure-footed on concrete, asphalt or ice. Add in the required professional veterinary, dental and massage therapy services, and the price tag grows.
But whoa! Taxpayers aren’t burdened by one thin dime.
“We raise all of our own funds. The unit is a nonprofit,” says McKenney, who is grateful to the team of experienced volunteers helping with the horses’ care. “We raise the money through private donations, corporate sponsorships, local businesses and grants. We’re receiving a federal community policing grant because we have such a positive impact.”
According to Indianapolis Police Department Mounted Patrol https://impdmountedpatrol.org/about-impd-mpa/
Mounted Patrol Units generally perform poorly on paper because of comparatively low arrest rates compared to their peers on foot (with or without cruisers), motorcycles, and bicycles. This is because a mounted officer never leaves the horse’s saddle. An officer can perform an arrest, issue a citation, or otherwise perform any other duties, but generally awaits the arrival of a foot patrol officer or squad car to transport a suspect. If a suspect is combative, suspects are detained by being “sandwiched” between horses and officers. For this reason, Mounted Units aren’t often seen as having high arrest or citation rates despite being actively involved in the arrest or citation.
Mounted officers are best used in high-traffic areas. Police horses make for excellent “moving walls” capable of ushering large crowds, or, if necessary, a horse can side-step alongside a single person or small group to separate them. Officers also enjoy a high vantage point up to 10 feet above the vantage of other people or officers. This allows officers to see more people and for more people to see them.
IMPD officers take part in community-policing, which includes four key tenants:
- Neighborhood watch
- Intelligence
- Gathering public information, and
- Ensuring public confidence through police legitimacy.
The Mounted Unit excels at every one of those key tenants. Mounted units are excellent “beacons” to a community. People frequently want to come up to the horses where they otherwise wouldn’t to an individual officer. This allows for better information gathering, intelligence, and increasing public confidence. Where an officer in a car may move through an area so quickly others don’t or can’t notice it, a horse is much more noticeable and likely to be seen. An officer on horseback is as valuable to a situation and the department as 10 officers on foot.
The more accurately an officer can identify and minimize causes of specific patterns of crime, the less crime there will be. Having mounted officers working in conjunction with officers on foot, in cars, and on bikes makes for a safer Indianapolis.