Editor’s note: This story was first published in the The Courier of Montgomery County. Patrol member Shana House is a native of Jefferson.
The Conroe Police Department has launched its first mounted patrol unit, which will provide horse-back police patrols in both neighborhoods and residential and business areas, shopping centers and the downtown area.
Mounted patrol programs help law enforcement build interactions with the public because officers and deputies are not tucked away inside a patrol vehicle, said Conroe Police Sgt. Clyde Vogel.
“You have people who would never ever come up and talk to the police … people who are standoffish, their children, who they won’t allow talk to the police,” said Vogel, who has been with the city’s police force for over 20 years. “You see people engage officers, who are on horseback, just simply because of the horse.”
While horseback policing isn’t new to Montgomery County, this will be the first unit with full-time officers in the county.
There are other mounted patrol units working in the county, but all are volunteer units.
The 15-member Precinct 2 Constable’s Office Mounted Posse provides security for the county fair and rodeo and the sheriff’s office launched a mounted patrol unit in 2018.
In The Woodlands, the private security firm Alpha and Omega Mounted Patrol has provided services around The Woodlands Mall and the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion and other areas of the community for more than 20 years.
The Conroe Police mounted patrol unit, which cost around $126,000, will consist of four full-time officers, with Vogel acting as supervisor.
The unit is funded through the current city budget, seized assets, relocated funds and donations from sponsors.
Each officer in the unit, including Vogel, will have their own horse.
Vogel said the program is modeled after Houston Police Department’s program, where each officer must complete more than 300 hours of training courses.
According to HPD’s website, the mounted patrol instruction and standard training courses includes horse care-grooming, groundwork, equation-learning how to comfortably ride, calvary formations, crowd control, harassment-fireworks and other loud noises, and arrest procedures on horseback.
In Conroe, the patrol unit’s first outing was on Sept. 10 during the city’s Kid Fish event at Carl Barton Park. Vogel said the reception to the unit was “overwhelming.”
Both adults and children couldn’t resist approaching the unit to pet the horses.
“You’re talking about people who’ve probably never even seen a horse,” he said.
The horses provide highly visible security for events such as parades, park and downtown events.
The Conroe Police mounted patrol unit also will be present during the holidays, assist in helping to find missing persons and represent the department at ceremonial events, Vogel said,
The horses have the ability to protect officers during crowded events, said Sheriff’s Lt. Scott Spencer.
As an example, he said the sheriff’s mounted unit was able to break up a fight at the county fair this year, where deputies were able to make a gap in the crowd, allowing deputies on the ground to access the fight.
A person or business also has the ability to sponsor a horse, covering the cost of operating costs of the horse, which includes food, vet care and trimming of their feet.
In exchange, the person or business will be able to name the horse, which will be visible on the saddle.
The cost to sponsor a horse is $5,000 and more than $70,000 has been donated by sponsors, Vogel said.
So far, five horses have been sponsored and named: Augustus, Blaze, Willie B, Gravely and Dakota.
Vogel said he isn’t a stranger to riding horses, having grown up around them on a ranch as a child.
He called it “indescribable,” to be commanding the first mounted patrol unit in the city.
“It’s pretty neat to be a part of history,” Vogel said.
For more information about how to sponsor a horse, email cvogel@cityofconroe.org