Todays special Christmas poem in the Baltimore Sun is another installment in a haphazard tradition of exchanging holiday greetings with the city police department. It began many, many years ago, back when David Simon was writing cop briefs instead of screenplays, with an "Ode to Homicide."

I found a copy of that original poem, which you'll find below, even though some parts of the headline and the authors' names were some how obliterated. It was written by Simon, Rafael Alvarez, Ann Lolordo, Rogert Twigg and David Ettlin. Only Ann is still with us, working as Opinion Editor with her name on the masthead.

That poem, which probably dates to the late 1980s or early 1990s, refers to longtime departed police spokesman Dennis Hill and actually got a response from homicide Detective Dennis Steinhice, though his name also got lost on the copy I had. Steinhice titled his simply, "The Reply," and it's also below.

In the late 1990s, police spokeswoman Ragina Averella renewed the tradition with a nice card, "Twas the night before Christmas." I responded with a poem of my own, noting the commissioner at the time, Thomas C. Frazier, and other issues. Today's column updates that effort with more timely information.

Enjoy and happy holidays