By Michael E. Simmons
Since 1821, officers of the Pensacola Police Department have patrolled the streets of our fair city. For the first 93 years, patrolling was accomplished by foot patrol and horse patrol. When an officer was first hired, he was assigned to walk a beat, often up and down Palafox Street. The other method of transportation was horseback. Well…there was one horse and buggy that the captain rode in.
Today’s officers don’t have a true understanding of the troubles that horseback-era officers encountered.
For instance, the monthly report of the Board of Public Safety in 1900 documented that one horse was out of commission, causing the officer to walk a beat. The reason? It had been kicked by another police horse.
The Saturday, September 3, 1910 edition of the Pensacola News Journal ran an article about Pensacola Police Captain Frank Wilde’s search for a new police horse.
“It is wonderful how many horses there are in Pensacola and how few of them are of the variety calculated to make a good police horse. A police horse must have sense, he must be able to stand when the rider dismounts, he must be of a quiet disposition, but yet must have mettle and durability. He must be a courageous horse and for a captain’s horse, he must be able to distinguish a patrolman in or out of uniform a long ways off.”
The cost of shoeing police horses in 1916 was:
Mounted police horses – $1.00 head
Patrol horses – $1.30 head
In 1917, five old police and fire horses sold for $610.00
In 1926, the Mardi Gras parade was led by Chief Willie O’Connell wearing white gloves and riding a police horse.
Although the Pensacola Police Department does not have a mounted unit, many agencies still use horses for crowd control and patrolling downtown. Think about it…if you want to move a crowd back at a parade, there isn’t much that is as intimidating as a police officer on a horse!
Some of these beasts could be seen patrolling Mane St.