GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – The Green Bay Police Department was not horsing around Tuesday when they introduced two new members to their force.
Chief Andrew Smith and Mayor Jim Schmitt welcomed horses “Little Joe” and “Casey” to their Mounted Patrol Unit.
The goal of the unit is to provide high-visibility patrol and crime suppression throughout the city and strengthen community policing efforts.
Smith says they have about 40 events in the next year they would like the horses to be at.
“Right now the plan is to have them on all the special events, certainly in the parks on weekends, certainly out here at Bay Beach as much as possible.”
Schmitt says they researched these type of patrols in other large cities.
“Mounted police is something that we’ve talked about for the last couple of years and Chief Smith, when he joined the department, was very committed to doing this.”
The two aged geldings are about 20-years-old each and are leased from a private firm out of Milwaukee.
“Little Joe” and “Casey” are currently housed at a stable in Denmark.
Mandi Mincheski is the owner of Moonlight Meadows Performance Horses and says these two are very laid back and perfectly suited for this job.
“They each have their own personality, just like people do and they also have good and bad days, just like people do. So what we’re trying to do now, we’re trying to establish which officer’s personalities fit best with which horse.”
There are 10 officers trained to ride the Quarter Horses which are leased through November, where at that point, the department will reevaluate the program.
The horses are being paid for with money from the police department budget.
Chief Smith says the plan is to have a total of 6 horses in the unit.
