By MES Dispatch Staff
The Briefing
- The Minneapolis Police Department’s mounted patrol unit disbanded after its barn lease in Maple Plain, Minnesota, expired Aug. 31.
- The City Council had voted to defund the unit, cutting roughly $150,000, or more than a quarter, of its 2025 budget.
- Mayor Jacob Frey said the department lacked the votes to continue funding the program amid a tight city budget.
- Eleven police horses remain temporarily boarded at their longtime stables while officials work out an agreement to donate them and their equipment to another organization; both full-time unit officers have been reassigned within the department.
- Council President Elliott Payne said the department spent $129,000 on the unit without budget authorization before the lease expired, calling it a sign of “an absolute breakdown in governance.”
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minneapolis Police Department’s mounted patrol unit, the last horseback police unit in Minnesota, has disbanded after its barn lease expired last month, ending more than three decades of service following years of council efforts to cut its funding.
The City Council diverted more than a quarter of the unit’s 2025 budget, about $150,000, in what was at least the third attempt since 2009 to eliminate its funding. Former Police Chief Brian O’Hara had pledged to keep the unit running through donations, and departmental discretion over spending allowed it to continue operating for another 18 months. But according to Kevin Rofidal, spokesman for the Minnesota Fraternal Order of Police, supporters were told not to solicit donations because council approval — required by statute for such gifts — was considered unlikely.
Mayor Jacob Frey acknowledged the unit’s value as a “force multiplier” during large events requiring crowd control but said funding constraints made its continuation impossible. “In a very tight budget year, we’ve had very difficult conversations and negotiations,” Frey said. “And it was clear we weren’t going to have the votes” to continue funding the program. Police did not believe the council would approve another multiyear lease at the Maple Plain stables, which expired Aug. 31.
Eleven police horses remain temporarily boarded at the stables, subsidized in part by the Minneapolis Mounted Police Foundation and the department, while officials arrange to donate the horses and equipment to another organization. Both full-time members of the unit have been reassigned within the department. Minneapolis police spokesman Sgt. Garrett Parten said in a statement that the mounted patrol helped build “positive relationships with diverse communities across the city” for decades and “will be deeply missed.”
During a budget committee meeting this week, Council President Elliott Payne said the department had spent $129,000 on the unit that was not budgeted, roughly matching past boarding costs, calling continued spending in defiance of the council’s 2025 vote a sign of “an absolute breakdown in governance.” Council Member LaTrisha Vetaw, a vocal advocate for the unit, said she was “devastated” by its end, calling the horses “a unique tool that I was glad Minneapolis had.”
Minneapolis formed its mounted unit in 1994 after the Downtown Council funded an 18-month pilot program. The unit survived a 2020 funding cut following George Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis officer and further funding fights in 2024, when critics, including Payne, described it as “antiquated” and evocative of historical imagery some found troubling. City leaders said they were unaware of any brutality complaints involving the unit. Its final formal Minneapolis appearance came Aug. 4 for National Night Out.