Local News in Brief : Police Stable Under Way
Work began Thursday on a permanent home for the Los Angeles Police Department’s first full-time mounted patrol.
Grading was begun as the first step toward construction, expected to be completed Oct. 1, of a barn, meeting rooms and offices on a two-acre site in Atwater. The Ahmanson Foundation donated $1.5 million to the city late last year to purchase the property, which housed the Los Feliz Stables, and pay for construction. Bolstered by that donation, the City Council voted last month to appropriate operating funds for the 32-officer unit, which replaces the department’s 6-year-old volunteer horse patrol.
City officials have said that a mounted patrol will help in drug enforcement and special-event crowd control.
The 40-horse unit will cost $462,000 a year to maintain, officials said. The city is in the process of buying horses, equipment and trailers for the squad.
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