Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

PC Gel­liseau and Cor­po­ral Phillip, of the Po­lice Mount­ed Branch, cre­at­ed a stir yes­ter­day as they rode through the streets of San Fer­nan­do on hors­es. The hors­es, named Gabriel and Hero, were the cen­tre of at­ten­tion as sev­er­al passers­by seized the op­por­tu­ni­ty to take pho­tographs with them. Sgt Ran­jit Ram­per­sad, who ac­com­pa­nied the of­fi­cers, said the horse pa­trols were part of the com­mu­ni­ty crime erad­i­ca­tion ini­tia­tive.

That was out­lined by Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Jack Ewats­ki on Tues­day night as he spoke at a func­tion host­ed by the Pe­nal Ro­tary Club. Ram­per­sad said if an of­fi­cer drove through the streets in a car, mem­bers of the pub­lic would not be as open to him com­pared to if he was on a horse. Peo­ple are at­tract­ed to the horse. They will want to stop and talk. Some of them want to touch the horse. "The pub­lic is more re­cep­tive to po­lice of­fi­cers from the Mount­ed Branch," Ram­per­sad said. He said at­tempts were be­ing made to buy a horse box so ad­di­tion­al pa­trols could be done in oth­er parts of the coun­try.