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El Paso Police mounted patrol disbanded after two years

The only mounted patrol in Texas will be phased out, police announced this week

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By Trish Long
El Paso Times

EL PASO, Texas — Police Capt. Jim Parks nervously paced the floor as he gathered his thoughts. As he finally took his seat behind the desk in the small conference room, everyone knew what he was about to say.

The rumors had finally come true. The El Paso Police Department’s Mounted Patrol was going to be disbanded.

For more than two years, the mounted patrol, the only one in Texas, had acted a dual role as a public relations-law enforcement arm of the Police Department. During that time, a close-knit family grew within the Mounted Patrol ranks. That closeness was apparent as Parks delivered his announcement.

Soft spot for Mounted Patrol

“Today, I was informed and asked to notify you that as of June 5 ... the Mounted Patrol will be phased out,” said Parks to the four police officers and three civilians who remained in the Mounted Patrol family. “As you all know, I have a very soft spot in my heart for the Mounted Patrol. It is very hard for me to tell you this.”

The small conference room in the trailer house next to the stables where the nine police horses are kept was silent as Parks delivered the bad news. He had been the head of the patrol since its inception, and his feelings for the group clearly showed during his low-keyed but emotional announcement.

[RELATED: Riding tall in the saddle while wearing a badge]

“I regret having to tell you this. I have tried to do my best to hold this organization together,” he said. “I suppose this is one of those things the city fathers felt it was time to phase out.”

After the announcement, Parks said he was first told at noon Wednesday by Chief Robert Minnie of the city’s decision. He said there had been many rumors about the Mounted Patrol’s fate and the news was not a surprise.

City to save $25,444 a year

“I really don’t know why they made this decision. I have never been told,” Parks told one of the officers who wanted to know why the patrol was being disbanded.

The patrol’s fate had been slowly written across the wall during the last few months as four officers in the patrol had been transferred to other duties without being replaced.

After the meeting ended, Parks speculated that the city had made the decision “because they felt that for the money being spent they were not getting their money’s worth in law enforcement.”

Mayor Don Henderson said Wednesday discontinuing the patrol would save the city $25,444 a year.

“There is no way of measuring how much crime was prevented just by the Mounted Patrol’s being there. And the amount of public relations given the city by the patrol is beyond figuring,” Parks said.

History of the Mounted Patrol

In another article, in the same edition, Fred Williams gave the history of the patrol:

Mayor Don Henderson announced, “We are out of the horse patrol business.”

Some of the nine police horses will be sold. Henderson said, and some will be returned to the persons who gave them to the city two years ago. He did not say how many would be sold.

He said the horse patrol corral and other facilities in Washington Park will be turned over to the zoo (also located in Washington Park) and to the city’s animal control unit for use as a quarantine facility.

Park patrolmen will be hired

He said one of the locations where a mounted patrolman probably was the most effective in law enforcement — Memorial Park — will be continued with an officer using a three-wheeled motor scooter to continue patrolling the park.

In addition, Henderson said, the city will hire 11 more park patrolmen for full-time duty this summer to patrol other city parks.

The horse patrol was initiated under former Mayor Fed Hervey on Aug. 19. 1974. The idea for the horse patrol was suggested to Hervey by William McGaw as a plan to attract and impress tourists coming to El Paso with the frontier history of the city.

McGaw first proposed the idea publicly during an August 1973 meeting of the City Board of Development, which was busily trying to figure out ways to attract tourists to the city.

McGaw told the board the mounted police would not only reduce crime in the Downtown area in much the same manner the foot patrol did, but more important it would give El Paso a special flare, and identity and uniqueness that would draw people here. ...

McGaw had little to say Wednesday about the city’s action in discontinuing his brainchild.

“They did the whole thing wrong,” McGaw said. “They didn’t use it in the way I suggested they do it. It could have been a showpiece for the city. ... It wasn’t.”

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