Action on Camden Saloons Denied

Philadelphia Public-Ledger - March 16, 1922

Camden Police Chief Says Patrolmen Listing Visitors Are Without Orders — End Espionage Last Night

Assistant Chief Edward S. Hyde, who is temporarily head of the Camden police department, denied today that patrolmen are acting under any orders of police officials or have received any instructions in the matter of standing in front of saloons and taking the names and addresses of persons who enter.

Patrolmen acting on orders of the Federal prohibition enforcement authorities yesterday stood at the entrances of drinking places and inquired the name and address of every patron who entered. The patrons thus made themselves liable to be summoned as witnesses against themselves or against the saloonkeepers before the Federal Grand Jury in case the liquor sold is found to contain more alcohol than the Volstead law allows.

Assistant Chief Hyde said he is very much in the dark as to the strange procedure. He said the patrolmen engaged in making the canvass are acting as individual citizens and not as patrolmen.

In most instances the names were given freely. Only in one instance was any untoward incident reported. That happened in the shipyard district when about 200 workmen, quitting for lunch at noon, flocked to the South Camden bar. Jeers and hoots greeted a patrolman who attempted to poll them as they entered, and he gave up the attempt.

At most of the saloons the patrolmen entered and asked the proprietors for the names and addresses of ten patrons. If the information was given he departed immediately, and if he refused he left just as promptly. The same tactics applied to the inquiries outside the saloons. The espionage on the saloons was maintained until last night.

Mr. Hyde said if the patrolmen knew liquor is sold or the law is being violated in any way it is their duty to make arrests, but he denied that any orders had been issued.