Oklahoma 'Hip Hop Cops' Rap Messages to Kids

BROKEN ARROW, Okla. -- A duo of Broken Arrow police officers is taking a new-school approach to an old-school message to keep kids off drugs and warn them about talking to strangers.

For the past few months, the Hip Hop Cops, made up of officer Ezell Ware and officer Greg Fall, have gone to several Broken Arrow and Union schools to give students the law enforcement talk about safety. But as the lecture gets going, they suddenly break into a rap.

"It actually started off as a joke," Fall said.

It began when the two officers were at a school giving the safety speech when one of them began rapping about staying off drugs.

The next event was at a child-care center and Fall began "beat boxing" while Ware rattled off short, four-line rhymes about the dangers of drugs.

They evolved what had been a joke between them into a performance.

"It stemmed from there," Fall said.

The four-line raps have been expanded into whole songs, and the Hip Hop Cops call out for audience participation.

"We get them pumped," Fall said. "We've gotten good feedback from a lot of kids."

The performance gets the kids involved, active and paying attention to the message, the officers say.

"The kids, they love it," Ware said. "They think it's real cool. We started doing it at day cares and it blew up from there."

Lisa Ford, crime prevention specialist for the Broken Arrow Police Department, said the officers have become local celebrities among elementary students.

As other officers and detectives come across kids during the course of their work, they have been asked if they know the Hip Hop Cops, which shows the impact of the message being delivered, Ford said.

"It's catching on," Ford said. "The kids have just grasped onto the Hip Hop Cops. They're sending a message, a positive message, and doing it in a cool way."

McClatchy-Tribune News Service