Sad speculation in the Guardian that there may be no more police horses on our streets once Osbourne has finished. I used to see them on the beat in King’s Cross when I lived and worked in London, and was told that they were excellent for keeping drug dealers on their toes. Horses could go places where cars could not, and do it more quickly too. Some dealers would emerge from the tube steps at the station, see the horse, and give up and go elsewhere. They are “community policing” tools par excellence – everyone wants to talk to a copper on a horse (apart from the dealers, that is).
I have many snippets here and there in my books about horses and policing (even an anthropology of sorts) but I’m going to save those for the event of this cut becoming a reality. I hope I don’t have to share them, although I do remember fondly the tale of the man who was fined for kissing a policehorse while in his cups. I doubt he would have done the same to a policeman.
I’m picturing some shady guy sidling up to the horse and offering him Lasix. “Good shit, man.”