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# SMPD cuts $300K; disbands mounted patrol
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/smpd-cuts-300k-disbands-mounted-patrol/
- Published: 2002-05-31T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T00:18:35.000Z
- Author: Andrew Fixmer
- Tags: Government & Politics, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*Police department at full staff in about four months*

(Editor’s note: This is the last installment of a week-long series examining the city’s proposed budget cuts.) The police department is proposing to disband its mounted patrol and leave two civilian positions unfilled next year, as part of a plan to cut more than $300,000 from its budget.

Police Chief James T. Butts, Jr. briefed the city council Tuesday on how his police department plans to cut expenses as part of a city-wide effort to cut $23.1 million for next year’s $387.3 million budget.

About 90 percent of the department’s $43.3 million budget is dedicated to salaries, which are bound by union contract. The other 10 percent of the budget pays for everything from pencils to bullets.

In its current form, the police department’s budget would not fill a parking enforcement supervisor position and a full-time records position at a savings of $100,297.

There would be a decrease of $50,000 for training and $78,000 for replacement vehicles next year, and a reduction in practice shooting ammunition by $24,826\. Almost $3,000 less would be available for new uniforms and tools.

Butts also is proposing to disband the department’s mounted patrol, which would cut $33,336 annually. Currently the department pays to house four horses and employs a part-time worker to care for the animals. Officers assigned to the unit ride when needed but their main duties are as patrol officers.

“We’re losing the horses,” Butts said. “But not the riders.” The city council began a series of detailed budget hearings this week to discuss the depth to which city services and department operating expenses will be cut. A final budget will be voted on June 18.

> “We’re losing the horses. But not the riders.” — — JAMES T. BUTTS, JR. Santa Monica Police chief

Unfilled hotel rooms and unsold merchandise in 2001 led to the first decline in tax revenue for the city in more than a decade. The shortfall has produced one of the most severe budget shortages in Santa Monica since the recession of the early 1990s.

In response, the city manager’s office has asked each department head to prepare two budgets this year, one with 2.5 percent in cuts and the other with 5 percent in reductions.

More than $2 million is being cut from the city’s departmental operating budgets, and about $20 million in capital improvements will be cut from what was budgeted last year.

Councilman Ken Genser and Mayor Pro Tem Kevin McKeown both said they would like to find a way to keep the mounted patrol, which was created in 1987.

But Butts warned that any decision to keep the patrol would need to be made soon. Reviving the program at a later date would be much more expensive than continuing the program this year.

“The mounted unit’s expertise is a manageable skill that requires continual training by horses and their riders,” he said. “We are walking down a road that would be hard to walk back down (at a later date).”

The horses have helped the police department with crowd control during large demonstrations and gatherings. Mounted officers have a high vantage point and can easily patrol crowds for incidences.

“We consider each horse to be worth five officers in those situations,” Butts said.

Despite the budget reductions, Butts informed the council that the police department will be fully staffed in about four months. Last year the department hired 35 new cops, increasing the roster from 188 officers to about 223.

The department has been authorized by the city council to have 229 officers on the force. Butts said the city manager’s office has approved assigning officers to two vacant officers dedicated to the Third Street Promenade.

The department has historically paid its officers more than most communities in the area. New Santa Monica police officers make about $50,000 a year.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 31, 2002.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/053102.pdf?ref=smdp.com)