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#1
15-Feb-08, 10:41 PM
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Police Forces Hold the Reins in Security
 In France, horses are increasingly being used by the police, the gendarmerie and the Office National des Forêts [Forestry Commission], to carry out surveillance and security duties, in urban and rural areas. Threatening yet reassuring at the same time, this superb working partner has proved itself an excellent aid to mediating with the public. Proudly mounting Fandard, Flamenco du Luth and Gainora, police officers in the uniform of the mounted police of Seine-et-Marne (East of Paris) prepare, as they do every day, to patrol in pairs, whether in Ferrières forest, at a leisure centre or a local commune. With twenty-two men and eleven geldings, the squad includes almost a quarter of the manpower of the five units formed in the Paris region between 1994 and 1997. Their mission? Commander Schindler, in charge of the unit and a horse lover, summarizes their duties as "Presence, prevention, reassurance and control". This enthusiasm for horses is shared by his mounted officers, all recruited with a good standard of riding skill. Depending on where they are being used, the officers – a third of whom are women – perform a wide range of tasks, but always in the saddle. "This goes from arrest for theft from vehicles to assisting lost walkers, from searching for missing persons to crowd control at sports events, from the fight against anti-social behaviour to dealing with breaches of the highway code and of environmental law: the prohibition on lighting fires, regulations about picking fruit or digging up plants, policing hunting, etc." Prevention is, by principle, preferred to arrest and prosecution. A large reserve of sympathy at the service of the police  One of the objectives of the squads is also to restore a feeling of security; and it works. "In some of the parks near problem estates, we have managed to reduce crime by 40%." reports Commander Schindler. "We have been able to restore to these areas their primary function – to permit families to relax without the risk of being attacked in any way." The key lies in the inherent characteristics of the officers’ "partner". "Faced with a group of slightly aggressive youths, we make use of the mental and physical abilities of the horses, of their character. With two geldings, it is possible to disperse twenty people in thirty seconds, just by moving around." The horse, indeed, is impressive. But even though it creates anxiety it also reassures. Enjoying a large reserve of sympathy, it facilitates contact with people, because "People see the rider before they see the police officer." is Commander Schindler’s analysis. "Because they act in the local area, this police force really has its place within the community." Supplied by the national stud farms or bought with resources provided by local authorities – who finance the facilities and equipment – the horses are trained in intervention techniques: arrests, restraint, containment and the control of hostile individuals or groups. At the request of the town of Agde (Hérault) and with its financial support, since 1997 the police force has also introduced a squad to police the coast in summer and to ensure that visitors can enjoy the beaches undisturbed. In the same way, the Republican Guard, which has 528 horses primarily used for ceremonial purposes, is also occasionally called upon to supervise beaches, at the request of local gendarmerie units. In France, gendarmes generally work in rural and suburban areas, while the police do so in the towns and cities. The Republican Guard has permanent mounted units to patrol around the presidential residences: Chambord, Chantilly and Rambouillet, in the Bois de Boulogne and the Bois de Vincennes in Paris and the forests of Senlis and Fontainebleau. It can also make a mounted squad available to gendarmerie units. "We supply horses and riders in less than four hours to search for people who have gone missing in areas that are difficult to access. Besides this, we can also provide a law and order service for major events, as we did at the time of the World Cup in 1998," says Commander Coz proudly, for whom horses are an "excellent aid to supervision and surveillance because they enable you to see a very long way." An environmentally friendly mediator Mounted security is also of interest to a number of municipal police forces, fire brigades and Office National des Forêts (ONF) guards, who have developed it particularly over the last decade or so. Thus today, more than 250 mounted forest rangers patrol national and community forests and many other green spaces, such as city parks. An increasing number of local authorities and other bodies with whom the ONF signs agreements are taking an interest in such a presence. "The prime objective" explains Jean-Louis Burtin, project leader of mounted activities, "is not to implement a crackdown, but to make people aware of their environment, to inform them and advise them. It is to act as a mediator between the public and natural surroundings, so that the environment is not subject to too much damage and visitors can enjoy the surroundings to the full. In this context, horses make it easier to talk to people, because people find it easy to approach them. With young people especially, it’s a very good way of starting a conversation. A man in uniform on a horse has the added advantage of immediately enjoying an image of authority." Lastly, the trump card of the horse is that it makes the ONF’s activities fully consistent. "If we want to warn the public that their presence in protected areas is disruptive and that cars are prohibited," says Jean-Louis Burtin in summary, "the message will get through more clearly if we ourselves use an environmentally friendly means of transport!" One way of betting on the winning horse... By Florence Raynal, journalist © Ministry of Foreign Affairs / Label France, magazine Further information:
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