![]() ![]() Many cities in the United States have mounted units, New York having one of the largest with 55 horses as of 2016, The Houston, Texas Police Department's Mounted Patrol Unit was started in 1983 and now consists of 1 lieutenant, 4 sergeants and 24 officers. ![]() United States Border Patrol agents patrol on horseback in Texas. Notable examples include the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Mexican Rurales, the Rhodesian British South Africa Police, the Turkish/Cypriot Zapiteh and the caballeria (mounted branch) of the Spanish Civil Guard. The establishment of organized law-enforcement bodies throughout Africa, Asia and the Americas during the colonial and post-colonial eras made the concept of predominantly horse-police accepted almost world-wide. Poor roads and extensive rural areas made horse-mounted police a necessity in European states until the early 20th century. The French Maréchaussée-direct predecessors of the gendarmerie and the first national police force in a modern sense-were a corps of completely mounted constabulary from their establishment in the early 18th century. Some mounted police units are trained in search and rescue due to the horse's ability to travel where vehicles cannot. For example, in the UK, mounted police are most often seen at football matches, although they are also a common sight on the streets of many towns and cities as a visible police presence and crime deterrent during the day and night. Mounted police may be employed for specialized duties ranging from patrol of parks and wilderness areas, where police cars would be impractical or noisy, to riot duty, where the horse serves to intimidate those whom it is desired to disperse through its larger size, or may be sent in to detain trouble makers or offenders from the crowd. In at least one case this has resulted in the police officer riding the horse (that caused the injury) to be sued. Due to this, authoritarian regimes often use mounted police to supress protests, as the public generally does not view these "accidental" deaths as resulting from a deliberate use of deadly force. When employed for crowd control, there is a risk that some people may be trampled (resulting in injuries or death). The added height and visibility that the horses give their riders allows officers to observe a wider area, and 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. Their day-to-day function is typically picturesque or ceremonial, but they are also employed in crowd control because of their mobile mass and height advantage and increasingly in the UK for crime prevention and high visibility policing roles. Mounted police are police who patrol on horseback or camelback. A mounted police officer in Giza riding a camel. ![]()
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