Chief Eric Stubbs said mounted police are useful for crowd control and for searches in rural areas, but they don’t come cheap.
When members of Ottawa Police Services Board vote this week on whether to create a new police mounted unit, the answer is already clear.
The neighs have it.
“We’re the capital of Canada. We have a few protests in this community and there’s no doubt in the few years that I’ve been here a mounted unit would have greatly aided our team in managing that,” Police Chief Eric Stubbs said after the force’s 2025 budget was introduced earlier this month.
“I believe there’s nine mounted units in the country with different police services. We need to be one of them. We could use that unit on a regular basis, not every protest — not even close to every protest — but there are certain ones where we need that presence.”
In February 2022 when police moved to end the occupation of downtown Ottawa by the so-called “Freedom Convoy,” a troop of eight mounted officers from Toronto were used for crowd control, twice being deployed to open space between protesters and police lines.
Ottawa’s new mounted unit is budgeted to cost $1.4 million annually or $4.2 million over three years. The money is coming from a $13.7 million pool from the federal and provincial governments, an acknowledgment that Ottawa police face extra and unique costs in assisting the RCMP and the Parliamentary Protective Services when dealing with demonstrations aimed at Parliament.
Stubbs said he expects to see hooves on the street by April 1.
The unit won’t be just patrolling Parliament. Visitors and residents can expect to see mounted patrols in the ByWard Market, and other downtown areas.
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“They’ll be an extra presence in some areas, be it Wellington, Sparks Street, Queen Street or in the Market,” Stubbs said.
The horses are also ideal for use in Ottawa’s large rural areas, he said.
“When we have search and rescue, we have drones but horses have been very effective at getting into some really tough areas that humans can’t get into.”
It’s been more than three decades since Ottawa police had horses of its own. In 1991, then-chief Thomas Flanagan OK’d a unit of six horses and constables with a supervisory sergeant. The unit was part of a community policing initiative and had the support of city council, which thought it could also be a tourist draw.
The unit cost $450,000 a year, including the officers’ salaries, and had two vans and two horse trailers at its disposal. It was based at the equestrian park on Moodie Drive.
Retired Insp. Don Sweet was part of the mounted unit.
“We were proud and out front,” Sweet recalled in a recent interview. “Kids loved us. People come and talk to you when you’re on a horse and we can engage with the community, which was great.
“Then there’s the patrol function, which we did fulfil back in the day, trying to assist where we could.”
The old unit was seldom used for crowd control, but Sweet said horses are ideal for that job.
“We never really got to that level, but I think the animal is excellent for that. They can certainly move a crowd. These are large one- and two-tonne animals that are pushing you aside. You’d better move or you’re going to get stepped on. Most people will pay heed when a horse is coming at them.”
While some criticized deploying horses for crowd control as “a bit over the top” back then, today’s protests are more organized and more difficult to manage, Sweet said.
“There’s a component that’s more violent than we would have seen 25 or 30 years ago. Social media has allowed them to be more organized and there’s a certain component that seem more willing to cause injuries or do harm,” he said.
“The vast majority are there for the purpose of peaceful protest, but there are those who are there who have other ideas and that’s what we have to be on the lookout for. The nice thing about a mounted unit is you are up high. You can see if they’re starting to arm themselves or getting ready to throw projectiles.”
Sweet loved his time in the saddle.
“It was fantastic,” he said. “Yeah, some days it’s cold and we’re out there in all kinds of weather. But we were being paid to be out there on these beautiful animals. I learned a tremendous amount.”
But putting cops on horses isn’t cheap, he acknowleged.
“It is taking (money) from other areas of the police service,” he said. “If they’re deployed effectively and used in the right places I think it’s something that can be very useful. But if the stats don’t support what they’re doing, I think you might have to say this money could be better used elsewhere.”
In 1993, the mounted unit was disbanded when the service was looking to cut $719,000 from its budget.
“It’s gone — forever,” said former chief Brian Ford, who took over as Ottawa’s top cop in 1993.
In this case, it seems “forever” lasted 32 years.
