The Seattle Police Department wants to end its mounted patrol unit and give the officers who maintain it other duties.
With the number of deployable officers down 30% from a high of 1,336 officers in 2018, the two members of the mounted unit — a sergeant and an officer — are needed elsewhere, Angela Socci, the department’s executive director of budget and finance, said in a presentation before the city council’s select budget committee.
She noted the police department has eliminated other units in the past few years, including traffic enforcement and its community police and anti-crime teams, to contend with the staffing crisis. Meanwhile, there are 101 fewer detectives in investigative units — including homicide, robbery and gun violence prevention units — than there were in 2018, Socci said.
Disbanding the mounted patrol would also save money, the Seattle Times reports.
Eliminating the mounted unit will save the department an estimated $230,000 next year and $237,000 in 2026, interim Seattle police Chief Sue Rahr said. She noted that the costs of feeding and training the unit’s five horses and one pony and operating the stable in West Seattle’s Westcrest Park are “very expensive.”
“There are layers and layers of responsibilities to properly care for and respect these animals,” Rahr said. “And over the years, the Seattle Police Foundation, through some very, very generous donations, have, quite frankly, helped us limp along so we could say we have a mounted unit.”
A public hearing on the proposal to disband the mounted unit is scheduled for Oct. 16.
