By Chris Serres and Terry Collins, Star Tribune staff writers

Last update: January 24, 2007 – 9:28 AM

They can chase fleeing criminals down dark alleyways, seal off congested streets and break up unruly crowds.

They are the eight horses of the Minneapolis Mounted Patrol Unit, and their success at fighting crime could earn them a new stable and an expanded presence downtown.

The Minneapolis Police Department said Tuesday that it is exploring the possibility of adding four full-time mounted police downtown as well as a new $1 million horse patrol facility in northeast Minneapolis. The move follows a commitment by the Minneapolis Downtown Council, a coalition of business owners downtown, to raise $100,000 for the effort.

"One horse is as effective as 10 police officers when it comes to crowd control and dispersing groups," said Inspector Janee Harteau, who oversees the First Precinct.

Mounted officers have been a fixture downtown since 1996, when Minneapolis police created the patrol unit with two riders and three horses. Today, 20 officers are trained for horse patrol, but they are assigned elsewhere in the city and work the patrol only periodically. If the plan is approved, four of those officers would be reassigned to work downtown full time -- doubling the city's cadre of full-time mounted officers.

For the plan to go ahead, the Police Department must receive approval from the city government and begin a capital campaign. The mounted patrol unit and the Downtown Council hope to build the new horse patrol facility within two years.

Merchants are hoping that putting more cops in the saddle will help to intimidate loiterers and combat the perception that downtown is unsafe. Though a fatal shooting near Block E last spring fueled concern about crime downtown, overall crime in the core of downtown Minneapolis fell 16 percent last year from 537 incidents to 436. Most crime categories saw double-digit declines last year, according to the Minneapolis Police Department.

"It's more imposing to have a cop on top of a horse than on the ground," said Tim Murray, owner of Murray's Restaurant. "And I know for a fact that some people aren't coming down here because of crime concerns."

Jerry Driessen, a criminal justice researcher with Hennepin County, saw the horses in action when he was researching downtown crime.

On June 10, 2005, Driessen said he was standing outside the First Avenue nightclub downtown at 2:30 a.m. when he witnessed two crowds -- each of more than 100 people -- yelling and hurling bottles across the street. Three mounted police officers rode through the crowds and they quickly dispersed, Driessen said.

"It was like herding cattle," he said. "Those horses rode right through that crowd and just kept people moving to the point where they went home. ... It really converted me that night. People just don't want to be stomped by those horses."

cserres@startribune.com • 612-673-4308 tcollins@startribune.com • 612-673-1790