POMONA - Sonnie the police horse faced
the frighteningly unexpected: a big inflatable shark protruding from an
open 55-gallon drum -- and swaying in the breeze.
|
| Greg Vojtko / The
Press-Enterprise |
| San Bernardino police
Detective Robert Albright guides his mustang,
Kody, to a rubber ball during an exercise in
Pomona. They were taking part in a five-day
training course with candidates from seven
Southland law enforcement agencies.
| | | |
It was enough to spook a horse -- the animals tend to run from even
imaginary danger. But Sonnie's rider eventually coaxed him up to the
intimidating fish.
It was the kind of training that enables police horses to cope with
their fears, ranging from noisy cars to toddlers towing balloons and from
unruly crowds to gunshots.
Sonnie and former rodeo performer Langsdon Canright passed their shark
test during a five-day training course held this week in Pomona. The
students were 19 mounted-police candidates from seven Southern California
law enforcement agencies, including Canright and five other officers from
the San Bernardino Police Department.
At a time when big-city departments are increasingly using mounted
police to patrol high-crime areas, San Bernardino has only four mounted
officers -- all assigned full-time to mainstream police work, usually
driving patrol cars.
For their occasional forays as mounted police, the officers provide
their own horses. They get no extra pay and no stipend for equipment,
veterinary bills or even horse feed.
But if all six of the candidates pass their department's final exam in
a few weeks, San Bernardino's mounted-police unit will more than double to
10 officers.
The group's goal is to patrol all major events in the city, including
the National Orange Show later this month and the Route 66 Rendezvous, a
car extravaganza that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each
September.
"Don't make this just a pony ride," mounted-police instructor Bruce
Smith told the candidates Thursday in Pomona. "The more effective we are,
the more (that commanders) are going to want to put us out there" on
assignment.
Police Horses at Work
The forte of all mounted-police units is crowd control.
Even belligerent drunks are reluctant to tangle with a horse, said Sgt.
Dale Blackwell, who started San Bernardino's mounted unit in 1999. Working
together, mounted officers can move dozens, sometimes hundreds, of
demonstrators, by either herding them or slowly pushing them.
On horseback, cavalry police -- who wear the crossed-sabers insignia of
the U.S. Cavalry -- also can search parking lots for would-be car thieves
or take traffic-collision reports along city streets. And there are always
tickets to write.
New Orleans has long used mounted police to control crowds during Mardi
Gras. New York's 85 mounted officers patrol all five burroughs of the city
in areas as diverse as Times Square, Yankee Stadium and Coney Island's
boardwalk.
In Los Angeles, mounted officers clip-clop through Hollywood, Venice
Beach and downtown LA, including Skid Row. The 35-officer unit made 404
arrests between Jan. 1 and mid-April, said Lt. Phil Tingirides of the Los
Angeles Police Department.
"The guys I put on those horses are not just smile-and-wave-type
people," Tingirides said. "They're looking for narcotics activity. And in
the Skid Row area, it's pretty blatant.
"When the officers approach, (cocaine smokers) will drop the pipe. But
if you drop it, it's yours, as long as we see you in possession of it. So
we book them. They go to jail."
Tingirides said homeless and unemployed drug users generally finance
their habit through burglaries and thefts. After a weeklong crackdown by
the posse, he said, it's not uncommon for property crimes to decrease by
half. Although the drop is only temporary, Tingirides emphasizes that many
crimes are prevented during each crackdown and immediately afterward.
Big-city police agencies have thousands of officers, and their mounted
units usually work full time.
In the 300-officer San Bernardino Police Department, the part-time
mounted unit generally works by appointment, and usually only at events
that draw crowds.
San Bernardino's mounted officers say they've scored some
successes.
During last year's Route 66 Rendezvous, 75 rival gang members refused
to disperse when the event ended and seemed to be preparing to fight one
another, police say.
Tear gas was an option. Instead, Officer Jennifer Fawcett and two other
mounted police cleared the street.
"We turned the horses sideways," Fawcett recalled. "And we pushed (the
troublemakers) to the parking lot, where their cars were."
No one was hurt, and no one went to jail.
The key is preparation, instructors and officers agree.
Street Experience
From toddlers to parolees, few people can resist petting a police
horse, officers say. But in a city, everything from street litter to
sirens can startle a horse.
Though police horses appear docile, their riders liken them to 1,500
pounds of dynamite.
"If you lose control (of a horse) for one second, you can step on a
stroller or on a 3-year-old child," said Sgt. Darrio Robinson, a mounted
officer for 12 years. "Every step has to be slow and deliberate."
Historically, most mounted officers were drawn from the ranks of
experienced riders.
The new generation of mounted-police candidates tends to have more
interest in horses than experience in riding them.
Novices make up two-thirds of each mounted-police class, said Susan
Smith, an instructor for this week's course. And even the few longtime
riders tend to have limited applicable skills, she said.
Smith, who has a master's degree in equine behavior, uses props such as
the inflatable shark to desensitize the horses to scary stimuli. But she
said it's far more important for helping students improve their riding
skills and their ability to communicate with the horses.
"You might familiarize the horse with 100 objects," she said, "but on
the street, they'll encounter object 101."
Reach Richard Brooks at (909) 806-3057 or rbrooks@PE.
com
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