Mounted Officers Caught Improperly Dumping Horse Manure In Jackson Park
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago police officers with the Mounted Unit have been warned by the department to stop dumping fresh horse manure in Jackson Park on the South Side.
On any given day, Mounted Unit officers can be seen stopping in Jackson Park, and shoveling horse manure from their trailers onto Park District property along the golf course – on the street, curb, grass, and around trees.
"The amount of the manure was absolutely astounding," said Lyletta Robinson, a woman who frequents the park.
Officers muck out their trailers while on their way to the stables at the nearby South Shore Cultural Center.
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Mounted Unit officers routinely use Jackson Park as a dumping ground, making no effort to hide what they're doing, according to Robinson. She said the level of disrespect is astounding.
"I was in shock, first of all. It didn't seem real, it didn't seem right that Chicago police officers were mucking out their horse trailers in a public park, very close to the public way, and in some cases … near a child's playlot," she said. "It just didn't seem that anyone with common sense would do that."
She said the actions are nothing new. She called out officers on the practice on her blog on ChicagoNow in 2012, after they were dumping manure on 63rd Street, between Cornell and Stony Island avenues, but it has continued in the middle of the park, near where Hayes Drive and Richards Drive meet at the Statue of the Republic.
"It's one thing to do it. It's quite another thing to do it near a busy intersection, near a high school, in a park across from playouts," Robinson said. "The corner of 63rd and Stony is not exactly a little tucked-away nook of Chicago."
Horse manure can be used as fertilizer, but only after it has been composted.
In a statement the Police Department said: "Horse waste is certainly not to be dropped in Chicago's parks. We expect all Mounted Unit officers to comply with the rules for disposing of horse waste."
The department said officers were being reminded of the rules for disposing of horse manure.
