TULSA, Okla. — Ten new recruits are joining the Tulsa Police Department.
Ahead of launching the new downtown division, TPD is bringing back mounted patrol to better protect the city during big events.
WATCH: TPD brings back mounted patrol ahead of downtown division launch
“Something unique about Tulsa, about Oklahoma is that we have rural roots so that’s something we wanted to explore a little bit," said Maj. Mark Ohnesorge. "A lot of major cities across the country use their mounted patrol in a lot of different ways so we felt like that would be a really cool tool to be able to bring downtown."
In addition to e-bikes and a UTV to help officers get around quickly, the mounted patrol is one more resource that gives the department an advantage. But, horses on the force isn't a new investment.
“We had to shut it down in 2010 because of economic difficulties at the time and we’ve tried to bring it back a few times in a couple different forms or fashions," said Ohnesorge. "We figured out we were able to bring it back this year with the help of the Tulsa Police Foundation and the help of officers who have horses and want to ride them to help protect the city.”
Ohnesorge said the plan is ten horses by launch of the new division in August. Right now, they have seven.
“Wrecker and I have ridden together for quite a while just on our own," said Officer Cody West.
West has been with the department for four years.
To control costs, TPD asked officers who had horses if they wanted to be apart of the new mounted patrol division.
West was one of the volunteers, and now he brings his horse, Wrecker, to work each day.
“It’s a great way to interact with the community and get to be around people and give them a chance to be around officers that they might not otherwise take," he said. "Regular officers are intimidating, but people like horses so you put them together and you get a good community opportunity.”
Wrecker and West went through department training and 40 hours of CLEET-certified course training to be ready for anything on the job downtown.
Their vantage point on horseback is their greatest advantage, West said.
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“A normal officer might be 6’, 6’2 at the tallest really for a typical officer but on horseback I’m 10 feet up in the air and I can really keep an eye on things a lot better and call things out to other officers on the ground working in tandem,” he said.
That's why Maj. Ohnesorge wanted to bring the horses back.
He said they've been working to expand resources for downtown for about a year, and have been able to get what they need with the help of the Tulsa Police Foundation.
“The mounted unit is going to be a part-time unit so they’ll be down here for big events that we want them to be visible for, when we need extra patrols downtown, it’s another tool that we can utilize to police better.”
The downtown division launches in August.
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