INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD's mounted patrol has been headquartered on the near west side of Indianapolis for the past 17 years, but they've never had a permanent location.
At the end of the year, the property agreement there will expire, and they'll be forced to move.
"The city sold this property to a developer, that developer then sold the property to be developed," said Sgt. Tyneka Sperry with IMPD's Mounted Patrol.
A new building to house these horses isn't in those development plans.
"We've been promised that no, we're not going anywhere," Sperry said. "They don't want to get rid of us, but they're also realistic, right? And if you are homeless, and have no place to go, what options are there?"
"These officers are special. These folks right here deserve a good home, and we want to make sure that that happens. But we do need the community's help," said Lisa Rollings, executive director of the Central Indiana Police Foundation.
They're helping the Mounted Patrol raise $1.4 million for a new barn, which isn't in IMPD's budget.
"It's crunch time, so we don't have a lot of time to raise this money. But we have a builder, we have plans, we have all our ducks in a row, if you will, just not the money to pay for it, which is the hardest part," Sperry said.
The plan is to build that barn nearby, right next to IMPD's K-9 training facility.
“Our number one goal is just to get the horses a house," Sperry said. "Some stalls in a barn for the horses is bare minimum. As officers, we'll figure it out if we have to, but our horses come first.”
The IMPD Mounted Patrol started in 1983 and views themselves as ambassadors for the city and the department.
"This is a way we can bring the police out to your house, to your community in a positive way, without the fear of all of the enforcement that goes along with it," Sperry said. "Right now, with the current lack of dialogue, meaningful dialogue between the police and the community, there's no better way than to put us out there and let us go in these neighborhoods and create that conversation that needs to happen for us to all heal."
If you'd like to donate to the Mounted Patrol's new barn project, click here.