Baltimore police officer seeks to humanize cops, connect with community through rap

Baltimore Police Officer Joshua Jackson understands the negative reputation police often have in communities like his, so he's using his ability as a rapper to bridge the gap, according to WBZ-TV.

Jackson and the Baltimore Police Department released a music video this week for Jackson's song "Baltimore's Finest," in which Jackson raps about his and other officers' experience in a positive way.

"I rap about the same exact things I see in the streets," Jackson said. "But I rap about them in a positive aspect. I don't glorify anything that is ungodly."

Jackson, who is 25 years old and has been rapping since he was 14, said he believes some of his fellow officers need something to pick them up and help them feel inspired to continue serving despite the constant challenges of the job.

"I feel like as hard as we work out here, there are officers who aren't motivated enough, and maybe feel there aren't people behind them enough," Jackson told WBZ. "This is a song that can give them more motivation behind what they do."

Jackson hopes that his music can serve to show citizens of Baltimore that police officers are also just regular people, and that he can tear down some of the negative barriers that prevent officers from being effective servants in the community.

"Maybe they'll say, 'Hey that cop was actually cool there,'" Jackson said. "That gets passed on to the next guy and so forth.

"As an officer, you have to learn the area that you work in," Jackson continued. "You have to know the actual people, you have to know the good people. If you don't have that connection with the officers and the officers don't have that connection with the people—unsolved crime, it's that simple."

Jackson told WBZ that kids in Baltimore have started to recognize him because of his music, and he hopes to one day show some of them how to write and record music of their own as a way to build relationships.