Mounted Patrol

Lieutenant Tim Voris

Deputy Jason Meadows

Deputy Doug Shell

The Fairfield County Sheriff's Office Mounted Patrol Unit is a supportive unit of the Patrol Bureau and is supervised by Lt. Tim Voris, a long time member of the unit.  It is comprised of both full time and volunteer sworn personnel who donate their time and talent to the unit dealing with traffic control, crowd control and community relations.

The Mounted Unit began in the early 1980s when deputies would ride their horses at the Millersport Sweet Corn Festival grounds, as they still do, assisting with parking cars and parking lot security.  The unit grew throughout the next several years and began working various other special events such as the Lancaster Festival events, parades, and emergency responses to missing persons.  It is much easier for deputies to monitor various terrains on horseback than on foot or in vehicles.  The horses help the deputies see over longer distances and travel throughout these areas more quickly.  A mounted police horse can cover as much ground as ten men.  Public relations are the Mounted Units forte.  Seldom is public attention so magnetically drawn to police as it is to a deputy on horseback.

The Horse: The American Quarter Horse
Each of the Mounted Unit deputies owns or leases their horses and is responsible for their care and maintenance. Once a deputy has qualified for the Mounted Unit he is placed on a probationary period and will be evaluated by a senior deputy throughout the year. The horses that are used are generally between the ages of four and fifteen years of age and normally are dark in color much like a bay or sorrel. The American Quarter Horse is a horse used by the Mounted Unit because of the stamina and usefulness of the horse.

Public Service
Recently Lt. Tim Voris and his horse “Shy” portrayed General William Tecumseh Sherman in the Fairfield County Historical Society movie titled, “The Journey that became a March,” which documented the General’s travels during the Civil War and his life in Lancaster, Ohio.

Mounted patrol Deputy Wendy Swinehart assisted the Fairfield County Humane Society with providing additional hay and supplies when three local horses were recovered. Donations were accepted at all Bremen area banks for the “Hay for Healing Project.”