The process, including training horses and officers, takes patience and perseverance.
At the peak of the unit's 32-year tenure, it had 190 horses, but shrank as technology improved and police on bicycles replaced police on horses, says Lt. Dan McCann, the unit's commanding officer. At the time of its demise in 2004, the force had 19 horses and 17 officers. By the end of 2011, McCann hopes to have 12 horses, and in the future, 25.
An officer on a horse is worth 10 on the ground, according to Marquise Robinson, an assistant trainer. Police on horses control crowds, but also patrol parks and streets. The new unit made its debut on July Fourth with four officers on horseback on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The unit also patrolled South Street in July after the Greek Picnic.
Toth, 45, says he was depressed when the unit was cut. He was assigned to the airport, but is happy to be back with horses.
"Nobody ever stops learning," he says. "If you spend five years with one horse, then you work with a different horse, it's back to Square One."
Hearn, 30, is one of 13 in the mounted unit. She and five others started their 16-week training last week.
Officers need not have riding experience, though Hearn took lessons for a few months as a hobby.
"I just can't believe I'm getting paid. It's like putting together two things that I like to do together," she says. "It was always a dream of mine."
The force has seven donated horses - four from the Newark, N.J., mounted police and three from a rescue ranch in Quakertown. The Police Department has purchased four trained horses from a farm in Maryland.
After riders are able to control a horse, they can practice keeping it calm around trucks, buses, and people.
