San Francisco's Equine Officers

Bay Curious

KQED

History, Society & Culture, Places & Travel

4.9 • 999 Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2024

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gone are the days of the Old West with sheriffs sitting astride their horses and star shaped badges gleaming in the dusty sunshine. But the idea of police on horseback isn't a total relic. San Francisco, with the country's second oldest mounted police force, still has a few hooved officers left. This week on the show, producer Katrina Schwartz heads to the stables to meet this four-legged squad. Additional Reading: After 150 Years, Why Do San Francisco Police Still Have a Mounted Unit? Read a transcript of this episode Sign up for our newsletter Enter our Sierra Nevada Brewing Company monthly trivia contest Your support makes KQED podcasts possible. You can show your love by going to https://kqed.org/donate/podcasts This story was reported by Katrina Schwartz. Bay Curious is made by Olivia Allen-Price, Katrina Schwartz, Amanda Font and Christopher Beale. Additional support from Kevin Stark, Chris Egusa, Paul Lancour, Jen Chien, Katie Sprenger, Jasmine Garnett, Carly Severn, Joshua Ling, Holly Kernan and the whole KQED family.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From K-QED. I've got a three-year-old at home and he's super into emergency vehicles right now.
0:10.0	He's often mimicking fire trucks, ambulances, and police cars.
0:17.0	Rupup, rup-roop, rup-up, rup-up.
0:22.4	So I was delighted to share with him that this week Bicurious was digging into another way that police get around.
0:31.0	On horseback.
0:37.5	Our question asker first noticed San Francisco police on horseback at the 22 Golden State Warriors parade.
0:42.4	They were sort of leading part of the procession.
0:44.0	My name is Abby Van Seust, and I live in the Excelsior District of San Francisco.
0:49.0	Once Abby noticed them, she started seeing the mounted police and events all over the city.
0:55.0	It got her thinking.
0:56.0	I'm curious about why they still exist and what they've done in the past.
1:00.0	Also, I just want to know about the horses.
1:02.0	Are there like different personalities? Also, I just want to know about the horses.
1:02.6	Are there like different personalities?
1:04.6	Do they bring out different horses for different events?
1:07.6	What does the care of taking care of them go into?
1:11.3	All about stuff.
1:12.8	San Francisco has the second oldest mounted police unit in the country after New York
1:17.9	City.
1:18.9	They've been around more than 150 years.
1:21.8	Today in the show, we'll meet the horses and their riders learn how their role on the
1:26.6	force has changed over time and get a sense of what their day-to-day lives look like.
	...

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