Dear Editor:
Spending priorities is certainly something to be concerned about (reader’s letter of May 23) but the mounted police unit costs us Hoboken taxpayers nothing.
The horses are donated or rescued thoroughbreds that the officers themselves retrain for police work. The horses’ feed, vet bills and other expenses are paid out of a special law enforcement grant. The police-work benefits to the city, however, are numerous because of the visibility of mounted officers and the ease with which they can traverse our traffic-locked city.
I have had the privilege of filming our police horses for a documentary in connection with the upcoming City Animals exhibit at the Hoboken Historical Museum and am concerned that misperceptions about their cost to us taxpayers be corrected.
Sara Winter
Stearns Brook Productions LLC