BSO Mounted Patrol Looking For A Few Good Volunteers

FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) - When the economy turned south, BSO's Mounted Patrol took a big hit, leaving no full time deputies on horseback.

"A few years ago, I believe we had up to 8 full time deputies assigned to the unit," said Sgt. Daniel Marks.  "Now, the deputies that ride horses are also assigned to road patrol districts."

Turns out, that budget cut actually lead to a larger mounted posse, one made up of deputies who work it part time – along with nearly 4 dozen volunteers.   Jeff Goldstein is a retired police officer from California.  He has a horse, has the time and donates his service to BSO.

"You get a satisfaction that you're not just sitting around," said Goldstein.  "You're actually putting your hand in and helping out where you can."

Sam Kaplan trains horses for a living, she volunteers too.

"We can get into places where vehicles cannot," she explained.  On horseback, volunteers can work anything from crowd control to life saving searches.  "If there's a missing child or they need help with crowd control, we can help them."

"First of all, we have height," said Goldstein, "that's an advantage, second of all, is the ground we can cover.  We can cover a lot more ground, a lot more efficiently then people on the ground walking."

Don Maines helped lead the call for volunteers to join to posse.  For many who ride with BSO – it's a chance to give back…giving a new meaning to community policing.

"I feel like I owe this community.  It's where I live and play and work and I do everything here," said Maines."

Right now the BSO Mounted Posse is up to about 40 volunteers.  They can still use more help.  To get more information, e-mail Sgt. Daniel Marks at Daniel_Marks@sheriff.org.