Thank you for your interest in the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office Mounted Unit and the efforts of the Motor City Horse Force to support this popular unit and valuable team of officers and horses.

Our Mounted Unit was established in 1978 under my command as a lieutenant in the Sheriff’s Office. For the past 29 years, our mounted patrol has been an important part of the Sheriff’s Office and the local community, providing a strong law enforcement presence and a friendly face for Michigan’s second largest police agency.

Our officers and their horses are familiar sites at local parades, other local community events and to families who frequent our county’s gem, Hines Park. These specially trained horses and their officers also are utilized for crowd control at major events, such as the recent MLB All Star Game, Super Bowl XL, World Series, International Auto Show and the International Freedom Festival Fireworks. Mounted patrols also can be invaluable during search and rescue operations in deeply wooded areas where officers on foot or in patrol cars cannot reach.

Currently, Wayne County’s is the only remaining full-time police mounted patrol in the State of Michigan, so it is imperative for it to have a reliable source of funding that is not solely dependent upon the county’s highly competitive budget process. With the generous help of the Motor City Horse Force and the Restore the Horse Foundation, I believe we have established the perfect mechanism to guarantee the ongoing success — and possible future expansion — of the Wayne County Sheriff’s Mounted Unit.

—Sheriff Warren C. Evans