Police Horses - why?

Because it puts the ****s up anyone being faced with a horde of coppers on horseback who (probably) want to do nothing other than showing the youth of today something called disipline.

I like them. It's effective when they're used due to the psychological aspect as people have pointed out above, and it's just carrying on a bit of tradition I guess.
 
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They are incredibly intimidating though, especially up close when you realise just how big they actually are.

Seen them in Bristol City Centre every now and then, keeps the drunks amused anyway.
 
grimm said:
Having a horse is like a second brain/autopilot as well. They will avoid obstacles, potholes etc. on their own whilst the rider focuses on more important business like cracking skulls.
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Yup (although not so much the cracking skulls:p)

The Officer can basically concentrate on watching/following someone whilst the horse will generally avoid obstacles pretty much on it's own, or respond to the riders minimal controls/movements

The horses are also very very useful in environments where you go from normal road, to pedestrian areas, or even grass, as unlike pretty much any other form of transport in use, a horse can go up and down kerbs, runs well on everything from grass to pavement or road, and can fit into gaps where a car can't.

I see them regularly in Milton Keynes (they've got a real big beastie*), and the advantages are immediately apparent when you see them around the market, or answering a call (going up over the kerbs quickly to take the shortest route).


Re the horse dung, iirc no horse rider is legally required to clear it up these days, but it can be recommended.
Unlike the muck of dogs and cats it's generally fairly harmless and with little unpleasant odour, that and you're unlikely to accidentally step in it ;)


*I vaguely remember the lass riding it talking to a kid, and mentioning that it was the biggest in the Police service in the UK or something (I'm not short, but this beast was a good bit taller than me, I think the rider could probably comfortably see over transit vans and the like)..
 
They're good for crowd control and you don't need to deploy lots of foot plodders when you have them around. They get used at football games for crowd control outside grounds.
 
Because they have more horse power than your average human? they are big and intimidating.

I don't fully agree with using them in full on riots though, as there tends to be quite a few horse injuries :( and I am sure given the choice, they wouldn't want to do it.
 
It's also good for PR, the horses do attract a lot of positive attention from people when they are out and about. Improving interaction between joe public and the police.
 
Nexus said:
As King Damager says, they are often seen as crowd control at big sporting events. They are always at Wembley and Twickenham. Quite often they will have the horses facing the crowd and then turn them all to show their flanks, so basically forming a 'horse wall' to hold everyone back until safe to allow people forward again.

Also, if you saw the December 2012 riots in Parliament Square, they were deployed there and were used in a charge at one stage.
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I see what you did there. :p
 
groen said:
I think police should clean up the poo as well. Dog owners can get fines but police are exempt. Police should carry with a bag and a spade to pick up the horse poo.
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I believe in Central London touristy areas the MET have a council hotline to report poo dropped by their horses. The council then comes along and cleans it up.

This year someone started a petition to make the Police clean up their horse poo. It got FIVE signatures :p

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/15035
 
OhEsEcks said:
This statement interests me because it alludes to you being an expert in the field of poop. Can you elaborate more on the differences between the poop?
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I wouldn't say I'm an expert at all but I'm pretty sure children can go blind from a dogs poop if it has worms? (Just something I've heard before)

While a horses poop can have things like E-coli and Salmonella yet there have never been any documented cases of it effecting humans.
I think the only negative of horse poop is it's a pain when on the roads for cyclists/motorbikes
 
Kamwah said:
I wouldn't say I'm an expert but I'm pretty sure children can go blind from a dogs poop if it has worms?

While a horses poop can have things like E-coli and Salmonella yet there have never been any documented cases of it effecting humans.
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Holy ****, really? If I'd known that I could have got out of cleaning up the family dogs poop when I was a kid :D
 
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