The Baltimore Police Department is on the verge of losing its storied horseback unit because of budget cuts and is hoping that a private foundation can raise $200,000 before hay and feed run out at the end of September, forcing officers to give up their horses and move to other assignments.
City leaders slashed funds for the unit from $195,300 in fiscal 2009 to $46,900 this year, effectively cutting what is considered one of the oldest police mounted divisions in the country. "They are not going under on my watch," Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III said in a statement.
Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said the draft mix horses - Blacky, Butch, Barney, Buster, Binx and Bell - are up to date on veterinarian checkups and have shoes and enough corn, barley and oats to last another 50 to 60 days. They range in age from 5 to 24.
Underscoring their devotion, the six mounted officers who ride regularly have agreed that if the additional money doesn't come through, they will pay the horses' boarding fees until suitable homes can be found. That could cost up to $200 a month per horse.
The mounted unit has been political fodder repeatedly in tough economic times. In 2004, city lawmakers proposed cutting it outright and prompted one City Council member to announce that the horses were headed to the "glue factory." The mayor at the time, Martin O'Malley, suggested that the council cut the unit as a tactic to raises taxes, and funding was restored.
But that posturing five years ago was done before the council voted on the budget. This year, the cuts are already a done deal, and unless money is raised through the Police Foundation or additional funds are discovered in the department's $312 million budget, the police horses that have been a presence on city streets since 1888 will disappear.
"That's a lot of history," retired Officer Robert J. Petza said Monday. He had spent 29 years on horseback before he retired in 1995 at age 56, spending his final day on patrol atop Trinity, a dark chestnut Morgan, riding up Eutaw Place in Bolton Hill and then waving to children at an elementary school.
In a Sun article about his retirement, Petza recalled chasing bank robbers and looters during the 1960s race riots. On Monday, he said his favorite moments were "just some of the riding we did on city streets." He fondly remembered tourists at the harbor, kids at the schools and criminals on the run.
