Summary
This report outlines findings from an 18-month project examining the value of mounted police in the
UK. The research approach took a broad view of the concept of value in police work, including
responding to and preventing crime and disorder as well as building public trust and confidence in the
police, providing reassurance and visibility. The project also examines the costs associated with mounted
policing, and includes an international questionnaire exercise involving senior mounted officers in other
countries to place the project findings in a more global context.
Chapter 2 provides an overview of mounted police work using available UK police deployment data, prior
literature on mounted police and relevant theoretical literature from policing studies. Following this,
Chapter 3 examines research findings from mounted police in neighbourhood patrol settings, alongside
comparative data for non-mounted police in similar roles, particularly foot patrol officers. The following
two chapters examine data gathered on mounted police in public order or crowd control deployments,
first in the context of football policing (Chapter 4) and then in other public order settings, including
research undertaken with mounted police in music festivals and political demonstrations (Chapter 5). The
report then reviews focus groups discussions undertaken with football fans and non-mounted police
officers (Chapter 6) to understand how mounted police are experienced by members of the public and
other police. Chapter 7 examines the costs of mounted policing through two separate costing exercises,
and Chapter 8 presents the findings from the international questionnaire exercise.
The conclusions of the study, presented in Chapter 9, provide a synthesis of the findings. The conclusions
take into account data from across the multiple and mixed-methods approaches used in the project, which
provide evidence of what mounted police do, and how their value may be measured and understood. The
study concludes that mounted police provide a unique policing resource that generates positive police
visibility in neighbourhood contexts as well as has the capacity to offer effective response to certain public
order scenarios. Based on the data, the study suggest that the highest demonstrable value of mounted
police is found in neighbourhood settings, which runs contrary to the predominant opinion among police
that suggests that police on horseback are primarily a public order resource. In turn, the conclusions
suggest that a reorientation in this predominant opinion is warranted.
Contents
1. Introduction. --
1.1. Mounted policing in a context of austerity. --
1.2. The research approach was by necessity multi-method, exploratory, flexible and iteratively
defined. --
2. An overview of mounted police work. --
2.1. Mounted police have existed in the UK since before the modern police service. --
2.2. Analysis conducted for this research project shows mounted police in the UK currently
contribute across a wide spectrum of policing activities. --
2.3. Understanding mounted police in the context of policing studies. --
2.4. Summary. --
3. Mounted police on patrol. --
3.1. A ‘daily diary’ exercise provided an indication of the average composition of a mounted
unit patrol shift. --
3.2. The Mounted Patrol Quasi-Experiment. --
3.3. Systematic Social Observation (SSO) of mounted police on patrol. --
4. Mounted police in football policing. --
4.1. Data from the UK Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) provided a starting point for
understanding the effect of mounted police at football matches. --
4.2. An analysis of a small set of matches with additional resourcing and survey data provided
insight into areas not covered by UKFPU data. --
5. Mounted police in other public order policing. --
5.1. Systematic social observations of mounted policing at Glastonbury. --
5.2. Mounted police in demonstration settings. --
6. Focus groups and interviews. --
6.1. Football fan focus groups. --
6.2. Police focus groups. --
6.3. Police inspector interviews. --
7. Costs of mounted policing. --
7.1. Police objective analysis provides a starting point for understanding the costs of mounted
policing. --
7.2. A ‘mounted premium’ developed in discussion with Directors of Finance provides an
additional means to understand the costs of mounted policing. --
7.3. While a specific cost figure remains elusive, some general conclusions can be reached
regarding the costs of mounted police. --
8. International survey of senior mounted police officers. --
8.1. Mounted activities abroad are broadly comparable to their uses in the UK. --
8.2. Respondents’ opinions of mounted policing emphasised the patrol and public order value
of mounted units. --
8.3. Reform of mounted sections is occurring or has recently taken place in multiple
jurisdictions outside the UK. --
9. Synthesis and conclusions. --
9.1. Mounted police are a unique policing resource with both heightened response and public
engagement value. --
9.2. Based on the use patterns and demonstrable value of mounted police units identified by
this research, consideration should be given to positioning them strategically as a resource
primarily to support neighbourhood policing. --
9.3. It is not entirely possible to separate the effects of the horses from the effects of the
officers riding them. --
9.4. The value of mounted police is not easily monetised, and estimations of their value will
be related to the priorities of police in an area. --
9.5. Suggestions for future tracking of the value of mounted police.