Horse-mounted police are popular, but less than necessary in a violent Kansas City
On Tuesday, the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners is expected to have an overdue discussion about disbanding the department’s Mounted Patrol Section.
Fans of the horse-mounted patrol unit have launched a spirited defense of it. Unfortunately, they are wrong.
Horse-mounted police officers are undoubtedly popular, but they are an expensive anachronism in a city plagued by violent crime and a shortage of officers.
The board should take steps to eliminate the section and reassign its personnel.
That isn’t just our conclusion. Almost two years ago, an outside consulting firm studied the police department and issued a series of recommendations to improve efficiency for police and for taxpayers.
“There is no question that the Mounted Patrol Section plays a positive role as ambassadors for the police department that cannot be truly measured,” the Matrix Consulting Group study found. “But the reality is there are more cities that are eliminating mounted patrol units because of logistics, and as a cost control measure.”
The Matrix study recommended elimination of the mounted unit.
The department has appropriated a little more than $633,000 for the Mounted Patrol Section in the current fiscal year. Most Kansas Citians have seen the mounted police. They were involved in crowd control during candidate Donald Trump’s visit to Kansas City in 2016, for example.
The section’s budget is supplemented by volunteer labor and a nonprofit fundraising group that has argued fiercely in recent days to keep it.
“One horse is the equivalent to approximately 12 officers on the ground,” the Friends of the KC Mounted Patrol argues on its Facebook page. “The work that these officers and their equine partners do is of vital importance to the city of Kansas City and its outstanding citizens.”
The mounted patrol is important, but it is not as important as other things the police do.
The 12-1 ratio claimed for mounted officers may or may not be accurate, but it would apply only to controlling crowds in open spaces. Kansas City has a much bigger problem with violent crime, where horse-mounted officers are much less necessary.
The Mounted Patrol Section is admittedly a small portion of the department’s overall budget. But taxpayers must insist the funds used for the police are spent in the most efficient way possible to reduce crimes to property and persons.
Horse-mounted officers do not meet this standard.
Visibility and popularity must give way to fiscal reality. The mounted unit is an unneeded luxury and the Police Board should take steps Tuesday to dismantle it.
This story was originally published April 4, 2019 at 12:22 PM.