There is a long and storied relationship between cops and horses. As America grew westward, the image of a mounted lawman became burned into the collective consciousness of America. Automobiles eventually replaced their equine counterparts as the go-to form of policing transportation, but horses have continued to play a role in maintaining law and order.

Many agencies maintain informal or volunteer mounted units, putting them to use in search and rescue and special event patrols. Some of the larger urban agencies even maintain formal, full-time mounted units. Officers on horseback have a vantage point that makes them extremely visible and especially adept at managing crowds. There’s also something romantic about the concept, a harkening back to a time of legend when lawmen brought order to towns and outlaws to justice.

In Minnesota, though, the last mounted patrol may be preparing to ride off into the proverbial sunset.

This is the same Minneapolis that was, in many ways, the birthplace of the defund-the-police movement.

The Minnesota Star Tribune reports that the Minneapolis City Council has voted to defund the Minneapolis Police Department’s Mounted Patrol Unit. This effort marks the third time since 2009 that council members have sought to move funds from the mounted unit to other measures. This move happened in December 2024 as part of a round of budget amendments made by the council. It diverts $150,000 from mounted unit’s budget.  This amounts to about a quarter of the unit’s funds.  

Chief Brian O’Hara claimed he was unclear why council members singled out the mounted unit through a line-item budget cut when they could have asked him where to shift dollars from. In an interview, he pointed out that the decision seemed to be “not based on facts” but ideology. 

One need not take a blind leap of faith to embrace the chief’s theory. This is the same Minneapolis that was, in many ways, the birthplace of the defund-the-police movement. A 2023 article in The New York Times describes how activists, desiring a “police-free future,” seized upon the death of George Floyd to advance their cause. This was the same Minneapolis where the Third Precinct police station was set ablaze and looted by rioters. Not surprisingly, crime rates surged, and police officers left the force in droves. While the defund movement faltered due to the skyrocketing crime rate, it clearly isn’t dead. It is likely no coincidence that the target of the “diverted” funds is a unit that is frequently used for crowd control.

Minneapolis Council President Eliott Payne told The Star Tribune that the diversion of funds was rooted in a desire to make hard choices about which investments provide the highest level of safety. He claimed that the council is trying to “… balance the priorities of the community with the raw fiscal constraints of local government.”  According to Payne, the money for the mounted unit “just didn’t look like a really wise use of money …”

When one examines the other “public safety” measures the funds were diverted to, it’s difficult not to share Chief O’Hara’s suspicion that the move is ideological in nature. Among the pressing necessities that the money will fund are additional “transportation for seniors” and “additional needle pickup in the Hiawatha neighborhood.” Priorities of the community, indeed.