The Banning Police Department’s Mounted Patrol Unit is a trained, fully equipped unit, capable of serving the public as a qualified resource that assists in public events by patrolling and being highly visible along with assisting for lost persons in rural areas and public relations. We use well-trained horses that can work in a downtown area and also search large tracts of open fields and other terrain to locate such things as lost persons.
Advantages of a Mounted Unit Horses are valuable searchers. They can cover large areas of terrain and have a highly developed sense of hearing, smell, and sight. They are instinctively aware of their surroundings and will alert on anything out of the ordinary, especially the presence of another human or animal. Mounted teams are not hindered by such things as terrain, ground cover, or length of time missing. They can also be a tool in an urban environment by being accessible for people to pet and talk to a rider. Additionally, the rider has a further area of vision by sitting higher and able to overlook people/vehicles. The mounted unit can also get to areas quicker by riding in between vehicles and through a crowd.
If you would like to join us, please contact me. Remember that most of our training and deployments are in the Banning area, and we do ask that each member participate in at least 50% of the meetings, deployments, and trainings. Also, if you are not mounted, but would like to help, we always can use help with ground command duties! Please contact Sol Avila at 951-849-1003.