Tulsa Police's mounted patrol traveling to Taiwan

Thursday, June 23rd 2005, 4:33 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- When Tulsa police Sgt. Dave Davis first heard that the mounted patrol unit might get an all-expenses paid trip to Taiwan, he said he thought somebody was pulling his leg.

"I had never heard of anything like it," Davis said.

The story turned out to be true, and Davis will be part of a Tulsa contingent traveling overseas to offer training tips and ride in a ceremony inaugurating a mounted patrol in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, next month.

"We feel very fortunate," Davis said. "This is a once in a lifetime trip."

Joining Davis and Officers Lori Mullin, Greg Evans and B.K. Williams will be members of units from Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Kansas City, Mo., Davis said. Those five departments, plus two in Australia, will help the Taiwanese port city get its mounted patrol started. Officers will be in Taiwan July 4-12, with the mounted patrol ceremony on July 9, Davis said.

The Tulsa officers planned to bring a training manual developed during the 20 years of operating a mounted patrol, Davis said. They also hoped to offer some insight on selecting officers and horses, along with the best ways to use the units, he said.

About the only thing they won't take will be their horses, Davis said. Because of quarantine laws and travel times, it would have been impossible to have their mounts in Taiwan.

"They have horses available for us to train with and ride in the ceremony," Davis said.

The officers' trip grew out of the Sister Cities International relationship between Kaohsiung and Tulsa. The two cities entered into a formal relationship in 1980. Through the years, the cities have hosted various delegations, but the mounted patrol's journey marks a step in a different direction.

Tulsa police go to other towns and cities in the region to provide or receive training, Officer Scott Walton said. Exchanges might cross state lines but rarely international borders, he said.

"I would consider this an unusual occurrence," Walton said. "It's not that often we get a request like this."

Several years ago, officers from Tulsa traveled to the Caribbean nation of St. Lucia, which sent two officers to Oklahoma on a reciprocal trip, Walton said.

"Do we get something like this twice a year? No," Walton said.

Tulsa's inclusion in the training and ceremony likely grew out of a visit to the city three years ago by the man who is now Kaohsiung's acting mayor, said Jocelyn Wood, spokeswoman for the Tulsa Global Alliance. In 2002, Dr. Chen Chi-Mai came to Oklahoma as part of an international visitors program, Wood said.

The U.S. units invited to Kaohsiung came from five of that city's 11 sister cities. Tulsa has seven sister cities and the alliance maintains those relationships.

Since the city of 1.5 million, the second largest in Taiwan, is paying all of the officers' travel costs, Davis said he planned to give his hosts their money's worth. Along with policing tips, members of the unit would be talking about the crucial part mounted patrols play in community relations, he said.

"People will approach an officer on a horse much more readily than in a car," Davis said. "They will come up and want to pet the horse. It gives you a chance to let them get to know the police in a different way."

The Tulsa unit, which was started on a part-time basis in 1985 and went full-time in 1990, provides a high-profile presence in high-crime areas and in crowd control. Officers on horseback also perform the mundane chores of writing parking tickets and, with radar guns carried in saddlebags, even catch speeders, Davis said.

"It's a different job for us and for the horses," Davis said.