S.D. Police in Minority on Horseback Arrest Tactic

Mounted patrol officers in several California cities said Thursday their arrest procedures don’t allow for tying a handcuffed suspect to a saddle and walking him through city streets as San Diego police did with a black suspect last month.

Billy Joe Hicks, 44, was arrested Nov. 4 for two misdemeanors, handcuffed and tethered to a saddle before Officers Tim Hall and Laurie Hubbs walked him about four blocks through Mountain View Park and down residential and commercial streets in Southeast San Diego, police have confirmed.

San Diego police officials Thursday announced that they had changed their arrest procedures in response to complaints from the black community and after The Times had reported the incident.

“They won’t be leading people around the streets,” Cmdr. Keith Enerson, department spokesman, said Thursday.

Instead, Enerson said that officers may use a tether only on suspects who resist arrest or to lead people from a remote area to the first city street to await a patrol car.

With that change, San Diego’s procedures now mirror those used in Los Angeles, where the 50 mounted officers can tie a suspect to their saddle with a short length of rope.

“You are somewhat at disadvantage if you’re on horseback and he’s on foot,” said Lt. Dan Cooke of the Los Angeles Police Department. “He can take off on you. You may use that technique.

“You might walk him from the middle of the street to the sidewalk, but that’s not a great distance.”

But officers in Oakland, San Francisco and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said they rarely, if ever, tie suspects to a horse.

“I can’t think of any circumstance where we would tie a prisoner to the horse,” said Lt. Gregory Lowe of Oakland, which uses its three full-time mounted officers for crowd control at special events and to patrol downtown.

“What if the horse reared or ran off? It would drag a man down the street,” said Lowe. “It would endanger him. . . . It’s just not done.”

Sgt. Ed Edney of San Francisco said “it would have to be an extreme emergency when somebody’s physical safety was in danger before we’d do something like that.

“Back in the 1970s, I did it once,” Edney said. “I had a large group of 20 or 30 people that were intent on lynching (freeing) my prisoner. . . . I was by myself and I did exactly what they (San Diego police) did--I put my tie rope through the handcuff chain and I walked the person out of the area.”

Told about the Hicks arrest last month, Edney said: “If there was no threat of violence by this person, no rush to get him out of there because the community was beginning to get aroused and riotous, it probably wasn’t smart to do what they did.”

Police and witnesses said that Hicks was walking his dog without a leash in Mountain View Park, at 40th Street and Ocean View Boulevard, when the animal chased and bit a child. Two animal control officers arrived at the park, followed shortly by two mounted officers.

Enerson said the officers, Tim Hall and Laurie Hubbs, were prepared to give Hicks a citation. But after they learned from neighbors that he had given them a false name and address, the officers decided to arrest him for providing false information.

Police communication tapes show that the officers called for a patrol car at 2:43 p.m., said Enerson. A unit was dispatched to the scene 22 minutes later, but it was diverted to a more important call before it could pick up Hicks, Enerson said.

But David Anfanger, principal at nearby Baker Elementary School, said he saw a police unit quickly respond and remain at the school for some time before leaving without the suspect.

Hall and Hubbs then handcuffed Hicks, tied a rope to the handcuffs and made Hicks walk between their horses to 43rd and Ocean View, where their horse trailer was parked. Their path took them down residential streets, across the park and down one of the busiest streets in Southeast San Diego.

One witness, Neal Petties, an area manager for the city Park and Recreation Department, said the sight of two white officers on horseback walking Hicks through the neighborhood was “ugly” because Hicks was “stumbling and nearly falling” as he tried to keep up.

Petties said the incident was reminiscent of “a person getting off a slave ship and going to a slave market.”

Another onlooker, J. D. Reynolds, a retired city sanitation truck driver, said he was upset because animal control officers responded to the scene faster than police did.

Enerson said the officers didn’t dismount because they are “taught to stay on their horses. . . . The horse is part of their equipment, really.

“You just don’t park a horse like you do a car. If you get into a confrontation, you’ve got your horse to worry about and whoever you have on the ground.”

Enerson said the officers will not be disciplined because they were following department procedure. But he added that he wasn’t defending their actions.

“Realistically, they should have stayed and waited for someone to get there, whether it was 20 minutes or 45 minutes. When they got to the trailer, they still had to wait for somebody else. They weren’t going to put (the horses) in the back of the trailer and take him to the station,” he said.

A patrol car arrived at the horse trailer, parked at the Educational Cultural Complex building, just as the officers and Hicks were walking up, Enerson said.

Enerson said that Hicks was taken to the County Jail, immediately released from custody, and was assigned a Dec. 4 appearance in Municipal Court.

However, Stuart H. Swett, a chief deputy city attorney, said Thursday that his office, which is responsible for prosecuting those misdemeanors, has no record of charges against Hicks. A check by officials of Municipal Court records could find no court date for Hicks.

The dog that prompted the arrest--a black and brown Doberman pinscher named Queenie--was taken to the pound and later destroyed when its owner failed to claim it, said Tom Ignacio, field lieutenant for the South County Animal Control Shelter.

Ignacio said a man who lived near the park, not Hicks, was listed as the dog’s owner.

Hicks, who has no known address, could not be reached for comment.