Police try reforming bard (5,4)

'police try reforming' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'bard' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'bard' could be 'poet' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'poet' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'lyric' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?