Story County Sheriff Paul Fitzgerald said there is a possibility that Story County will be adding horses to its patrol force some time in the future.

Although the idea is not at the top of his priority list, Fitzgerald said it is something he would like to do.

“Right now it is just something we are tentatively looking into,” he said. “I couldn’t give a date as to when something may actually come from this.”

Fitzgerald, who used to be a sergeant on the Waterloo Police Department, said his idea for horses in Story County came from the incorporation of horses in the Waterloo department, where there has been a mounted patrol since 1990.

“I was working for [Chief Bernal] Koehrsen at the time when he added horses to their force,” he said. “It started off as a crazy idea, but the public loved it and embraced the idea.”

If horses were added in Story County, Fitzgerald said the program would mirror the Waterloo’s force in many ways. Waterloo currently is the only place in the state with a mounted patrol.

“Before I do anything with this, I have to take into consideration the liability involved and the training for the police and horse,” he said. “This endeavor would not be at the taxpayers’ expense.”

The Waterloo horses are not paid for by the taxpayers either.

Koehrsen said all the mounted patrol officers own their own horses. At this time, Waterloo has 11 horses and eight officers on the unit. Some officers, including Koehrsen, own two horses.

“Although we have gotten donations from the community, the police force doesn’t own any of the horses or a majority of the equipment,” Koehrsen said. “The only thing we provide is the safety helmet and riding pants, and all of this is bought with donation money.”

He said the mounted patrol in Waterloo spends most of its time patrolling the streets when the weather permits and patrolling special events, such as Cattle Congress and high school football games.

Koehrsen said there are two high schools in Waterloo, causing a lot of “cross-town rivalry” at sports events.

“There was a big fight in 1997, so this year, we took zero tolerance,” he said. “After the game, we put six officers out there. These animals have a different image than police dogs. Six horses equals three tons of pushing power.”

Koehrsen also spent a lot of time training the horses before putting them to work.

“Horses are naturally spooky animals,” he said. “Their natural defense is to run in the face of danger. We had to desensitize them to frightening things.”

After their training, Koehrsen said the horses are desensitized enough that strollers can get pushed right underneath them and officers can even fire their guns while mounted on the horse.