Toronto Police Mounted Unit Visits Regent Park

By -

On 19th July 2021, Toronto Police’s Mounted unit, was called in by the 51 Division of Toronto Police in Regent Park to assist in locating an 80-year old missing person.

Sgt. Alan Spratt of the Toronto Police Mounted unit along with his unit was responding to call by the 51 division of Toronto Police to assist them in locating an 80-year old, missing person in Regent Park.

As the Mounted Unit of Toronto Police reached the Regent Park community accompanied by four horses of the Mounted Unit, they received a communication from the 51 Division that the missing person has been located, so the Mounted unit decided to patrol the Regent Park Community.

Regent Parkers, especially families with young kids were all amazed and fascinated by the horses patrolling around Regent Park. A crowd quickly gathered around the Mounted Unit of Toronto Police. Children and their parents were snapping pictures and making videos of the horses. The young children of Regent Park really enjoyed the spectacle.

The mounted unit of the Toronto Police was established in 1886 and now consists of 40 officers and 25 horses. The Unit is housed in the C.N.E. (Canadian National Exhibition) stables.

To become a member of the unit, horses must be large in stature and calm in demeanor. Training takes anywhere from six to 12 months, and includes a sensory component that introduces the horses to different experiences they may encounter while on the job like construction vehicles, sirens and, for some reason, skateboards.

The horses live at the unit's stables at Exhibition Place and are taken out every day for exercise. Once a year, they get two weeks of vacation at a farm where they relax. They retire around the age of 20.

“The horses usually are a brilliant way to interact with the public. Often people are not sure if they should approach a Police officer or not, but when there are horses, the public feels more comfortable.” said Sgt. Spratt. 

 Watch the video on Youtube:
https://youtu.be/sSU3l0RIfuA

 

Written by
Dawar Naeem

Journalist
FOCUS Media Arts Centre



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Regent Park Portrayed in Film and Television

By -
Image
Toronto has a rich history of being a go-to shooting location for many television and film production companies. Some notable films shot here over the years include Good Will Hunting (1997), Billy Madison (1998), American Psycho (2000), and X-Men (2000). Regent Park has also had its share of showcases in film. This article aims to review the general content of movie dramas and televisions shows shot in Regent and explore their relationship to the community. Clement Virgo is a director, producer, and writer from Montego Bay, Jamaica. He was born in 1966 and moved to the Regent Park area in Toronto in 1977. During this time Regent Park was generally populated by low-income families and as a hot spot for drugs. Virgo is most recently known for his roles in Greenleaf (2016-2018), The Book of Negroes (2015), and The Wire (2002) as Director and/or Producer. His first feature-length film, however, was Rude (1995), which was filmed almost entirely in the old Regent Park. “The film told
Read more

Meet Your Neighbourhood Police Officers – PC Mircea Biga and PC Farzad Ghotbi

By -
Image
Community-based policing is a proactive law enforcement strategy that focuses on building ties and working closely with a community’s members to create partnerships and plans for preventing and reducing crime. While community policing will look differently depending on the community it serves, a central feature is that the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis. Currently there are 17 community-based police programs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but what most people don’t know is that Toronto’s community policing started in Regent Park in May of 2017. We know this because the original officers involved in setting up the Regent Park community policing program continue to work here today. The officers are PC Mircea Biga, PC Farzad Ghotbi, and PC Edward Parks; the newest officer assigned to the Regent Park community is PC Nigel Thomas (who is replacing PC Melissa Huntley while she is on maternity leave). Symptomatic of the increasing diversity of
Read more

What Social Inclusion Means to Me

By -
I had moved into Regent Park only a few days before I saw the pink, fuchsia, strawberry, indigo, yellow, green, neck streamers and sparkling robes worn by children, parents, aunts, uncles, and elders as they marched passed my kitchen door. Soon, the nearby Athletic Grounds was blazing with colour. Although it was the first time I heard them, the intonations on the microphone were recognizable, even to me, as prayers. It was Eid, the concluding celebration after Ramadan. It was a beautiful sight. I am a White Jewish senior and I hunted for a stairless condo for years before I chose to live in Regent Park and then only because a relative did business with the new seniors’ building there. “Regent Park?” a friend exclaimed. “You are going to have ethnic problems.”  “Not I.  I come from a long line of fiery leftie activists.” I replied. Stage four and five of revitalizing this post-war subsidized development into a multi-income community was just beginning and I jumped in w
Read more