The New York Police Department has begun using horse-mounted units to patrol high-crime neighborhoods like East New York and Brownsville, according to an article in the New York Times. Traditionally limited to Central Park and the occasional political demonstration, horses are becoming more popular as crime-fighting partners.

"When a cop on horseback issues a command, people tend to listen," [Sgt. William McKay] said. "I mean, I'm sitting on a thousand pounds of animal. It's also human nature to respect and fear a horse."

McKay also told the Times that horses have an appealing social effect in these neighborhoods, drawing appreciative crowds among people who normally distrust the police.

I like this sense of human communal feeling gained at the sight of animals in the midst of urban life. My own experience with police horses have rarely inspired such warmth, however. The only times I've encountered mounted cops have been at large protests, where crowds are pushed into tight spaces with barricades. In this context, I've found mounted cops pretty terrifying--partly because I'm afraid that the horse is going to get spooked and mow me down, and partly because I'm afraid the horse is going to get spooked and end up getting hurt. But hopefully my fears are unwarranted, as the NYPD tries to choose the most unspookable horses. According to the NYPD's Mounted Unit Website, "Vices such as biting, kicking, or cribbing would disqualify a horse." The New York Times elaborates on the training qualified horses receive, which includes exposure to smoke bombs, clanging metal, flares, and blanks fired near the horse's head. "If the horse accepts the myriad of city distractions, it becomes a disciplined police mount," says the Mounted Unit Website.

At this point, the horse is formally given its police department name. Most are named after deceased or retired police officers, but a few are named after their donors. Horses in this latter category include Daily News I-VII and C.B., which stands for Chemical Bank.

Again according to the department's website, the first mounted unit was established on July 10, 1871, to deal with the growing problem of "reckless galloping of saddle and carriage horses." It started off with 15 horses and 12 officers, who made 415 arrests in its first year. By 1904, the mounted unit included 800 officers, but the size quickly dwindled with the advent of the automobile and the decreasing amount of stable space in the city. The NYPD Mounted Unit currently has about a hundred horses. They plan to add seventy-five more over the next three years.

And now, here's an excerpt from the Pennsylvania Cruelty Law, courtesy of the Equine Protection Network.

§ 5511.2. Police animals. (a) Illegal to taunt police animals.--It shall be unlawful for any person to willfully or maliciously taunt, torment, tease, beat, kick or strike a police animal. Any person who violates any of the provisions of this subsection commits a felony of the third degree.

(b) Illegal to torture police animals.--It shall be unlawful for any person to willfully or maliciously torture, mutilate, injure, disable, poison or kill a police animal. Any person who violates any of the provisions of this subsection commits a felony of the third degree.