IAN McMillan has become Yorkshire's beat poet.

For the next six weeks, he is Humberside Police's wordsmith at large. With so much crime about, it must reassure the good people of the East Riding that a poet is on patrol.

If Mr McMillan encounters a gang of knife-wielding hooligans, he will quickly disarm them with a skilful outburst of iambic pentameter.

This is a lost opportunity for the North Yorkshire force.

But Ian may not have flourished here.

After all, Keats never had to write about pension overspend.

Updated: 10:44 Tuesday, January 29, 2002