DOZENS of police officers dressed in ceremonial wear stepped silently out of their administration building in the dead of night.

They solemnly formed a file while the band waited as it had been for some time, with a white horse in the lead.

The ceremony could not begin without a horse, which must specifically be a white horse, ahead of the procession.

Nor could the march start before the stroke of midnight.

Everything now in place, they moved in a southerly direction down St. Vincent Street, east across Hart Street, north up Abercromby Street west across Sackville Street.

This white horse led
the procession.

Seniors say that when some officers retire from the first division, the executive walk around the Red House at midnight around this time of year.

This year’s ceremony was held last Friday.

Among those in attendance was former President Noor Hassanali.

His presence at least gave some credence to an otherwise superstitious event, and around a building over which much hell had been raised when a dragon replaced a cock as the wind vane.

It didn’t help either, when the horse remained unsettled for a while for no apparent reason, before the procession started.

However, Police Commissioner Trevor Paul has confirmed that this was part of a tradition that followed the retirement dinner for senior officers.

“It’s just tradition,” he told TnT Mirror.

“I can’t give you data on its origin but that goes way back from time immemorial.

“It probably started in the Colonial days, as you may see from the use of the horse.

“But it’s a long-standing tradition.”