These guys are all over the Ironbound on the weekends — we’ll have to get some better photos soon. 🙂
Newark Police Back in Saddle Mounted Patrols Downtown — February 21, 1989
The return of mounted police to the state’s largest city has reassured security-conscious residents and businesses with a heightened presence downtown, officials say.
“Everybody likes to see a horse,” said Lt. Pasquale Favata, the commander of the city’s seven-horse mounted unit. “You feel more secure with a horse because you have high visibility. “
An urban enterprise grant of $350,000 allowed the Police Department to reinstate the patrols in August after a hiatus of over 10 years, said Pam Goldstein, a spokeswoman for Mayor Sharpe James. The units ride in a 2-square-mile area downtown from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
But the day begins at 7 a.m., when officers groom their mounts and prepare the animals, which usually stand 15 or 16 hands high slightly more than five feet. Favata said officers become very attached to the horses and even come in on their days off to care for them.
The duty, however, is not a ride in the park.
Officers spend much of their time citing parking violators, but they also have thwarted purse snatchers and muggers, said police Director Claude Coleman.
Managing a horse through streets congested with automobile traffic and blaring noise can pose problems for even experienced riders, Coleman said.
One rider fell off his horse while ticketing a car because an approaching bus startled the animal, Coleman said.
“The officer was OK, but he doesn’t ride anymore,” Coleman said.
Each horse costs the department an average of $1,200, Favata said. He buys the horses at auctions with an option to return the animal within 30 days if it does not become acclimated to the duty.
Officers usually can determine within two to three weeks if the horses will adjust, he said.
When a horse is deemed fit, it can provide several advantages not enjoyed by an officer in a car or on foot.
Officers can more easily spot criminals in a crowd and can maneuver better than a patrol car, police say, adding that residents and business people feel more secure with a mounted officer.
“A number of people, for one reason or other, feel it’s not safe to come into Newark,” Coleman said. “But people seem to feel more secure with the horses around. “
Goldstein said the mayor considers the program a success, though there are no plans to expand it.
Not every New Jersey municipality has managed to keep a mounted police unit. Newark’s original unit disbanded in 1978 as part of department-wide layoffs.
The horses in Newark’s unit do not go out when the temperature dips below 20 degrees, partly because it is uncomfortable for the rider, Favata said. Horses also remain in their home a renovated garage about a block away from City Hall when the temperature tops 90 degrees.
Nationwide, horses in mounted police units fare well compared with their counterparts in city work carriage horses, said Robert Baker, a field investigator in Washington for the Humane Society of the United States.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO – Police officers patrolling downtown Newark last week. After a decade’s absence, mounted patrols have returned to the city.
Copyright 1989 Bergen Record Corp.
I met with Jeff Norman and Josh Balber to talk about what one might still consider to be Newark’s best kept secret: the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
The Daily Newarker 