Mounted Officers

The Broken Arrow Police Mounted Unit currently consists of fifteen horses, one commander, and four instructors.

The fifteen horses of the Mounted Unit are officers Jake, Lola, Honey, June, Romeo, Lucky, Doc Jockamo, Nacho, Valkyrie, Rebel, Zorro, Armani, Crystal, and MP. All Mounts are ranging in age from 5 to 15 years old. The mounts undergo a rigorous pre-purchase vet exam; and sensory, temperament, and riding evaluations.

The Broken Arrow Police Department does not purchase the horses and are officer owned, but do accept donations of quality horses with excellent dispositions and sound conformation. Mounts have excellent train-ability, willing dispositions and enough heart to chase down an offender, move through a crowd of people, and do the job without distraction from fireworks, traffic, music or other commotion. The unit obtains most of its mounts locally and spends a considerable amount of time searching for just the right horse before a purchase is made or donation accepted. 

Mounted Unit History

The mounted unit was established in 2022, originally to patrol the vast amount of walking trails, and our heavily visited Rose District.

The first original officers responsible for the idea of the unit, presenting it to The Broken Arrow City Council, were officers Pellegrino, Lacroix, and Poole. The idea presented, had the officers responsible for the upkeep on their tack, equipment and providing their own boarding facility; in addition to their current assignments. The mounted unit was not self-sufficient at that time and the officers had to find the funding to help the unit off the ground. The Broken Arrow Mounted Patrol would not have been able to be successful without the help of The Citizens Police Academy Alumni Association providing the funds for initial startup. The CPAAA was able to help provide the $15,000 dollars in donations to obtain the proper safety equipment to complete the school.

As Broken Arrow grew, the Mounted Unit began to focus much of its time in the Downtown area, with its large crowds, restaurants, theaters, events, and festivals. The role of the Mounted Unit has grown over the past 2 years after being moved to the Operations Division, to include crowd management, high visibility enforcement, person searches, as well as park, neighborhood, business and entertainment district patrol, public relations, such as working with school children, and training.

Mounted Unit Training

Basic Police Mounted Patrol School for our unit includes an initial 40 hours of academic and practical basic training. The subject matter is applicable whether the student police officer is an experienced cowboy, hunter/jumper or novice rider and instruction is individualized to the student’s strengths and needs. Topics include horse management; safety; the police horse; illnesses and injuries; basic and intermediate equitation; tack and equipment; trailer operation; crowd control; equine anatomy; and conformation, drills, ceremonies and a lot of saddle time. Student police officers must pass a practical skills test to complete the course.

The Mounted Patrol School is presented on an as-needed basis and is available to officers from other police agencies within the State of Oklahoma without cost. It is intended to provide a comprehensive, foundation for the officer wishing to perform his, or her, duties from horseback.

The mounted unit follows the basic course with on-the-job training for new mounted officers taught by experienced riders/instructors before assignment to crowd control, the downtown or allowed to ride solo. In addition to the departmental and statutory training required of all officers of the Broken Arrow Police Department, the mounted unit also requires monthly unit-level training for officers assigned to the unit and they must pass an annual test of riding and tactical competency.

In addition to this formal training each officer is responsible for the continuous individual training of his, or her, mount. Like human youngsters, these intelligent animals require care, stimulation, repetition, reinforcement and discipline to reinforce their training and maintain the high level of performance required of a police mount. The Broken Arrow Police Department is one of only two agencies in the State of Oklahoma that provides Cleet accredited training that certifies the officer and mount.

Please visit JoinBAPD.com to meet the horses!

The link provided below is the Broken Arrow Police Foundation