While the use of mounted police (i.e. police horses and riders) can be traced back to before the advent of the modern police service in 1829, very little is known about the actual work of mounted police from either academic or practitioner standpoints. In recent years, mounted units have come under resource scrutiny in the UK due to austerity measures. Some forces have eliminated their mounted capacities altogether, while others have developed collaborative or mutual assistance arrangements with neighbouring forces. The relative costs and benefits of the available options — maintaining units, merging and centralizing mounted resources, or eliminating them in whole or part — cannot at present be assessed confidently by individual forces or by national coordinating agencies.
Chris Giacomantonio,Ben Bradford,Matthew Davies,et al. Making and Breaking Barriers: Assessing the value of mounted police units in the UK. 2015-01-01.