Who Are the New Beat Poets? Hint: They're Blue

For the past several months the Chicago police have been scrambling to polish their image. Each week, it seems, there are new reports of everything from brutality to deficient officer training. Of late, though, the cops are showing a softer side. Even the Chicago Tribune, which had published a series of negative reports about the department, last week featured the men and women in blue waxing poetic about the beat under soft light at a South Side precinct.

The idea for "Take 5," as it is called, came from Sergeant Regina Evans, who was looking for a nontraditional way to get teenagers to come to the station to bond with police. But she has been surprised by its popularity among officers as an opportunity to work through the vicissitudes of cop life.

While civilians are encouraged to read and professional poets show up, it's the cops who are causing the interest, maybe because of contributions like this one from Officer Linda Griffith: "He allows me to walk [amid] the danger./ He lets me extend help to a stranger./ My flesh crawls and I miss him when he's not under my wing./ I don't let people see or touch him, it's a private thing./ So you should be grateful and understand what I've done./ If and when I let you touch the butt of my gun."