The officers' methods often called for them to threaten fines or jail time rather than arrest all offenders, which made them popular among people as a social service. People knew that they probably would not be arrested or get the unwanted publicity that goes along with being arrested and going through the public courts. In this way these officers became regulators of the community. Ordinary people interacted with them and thereby came to trust them. As a result these officers had many people willing to give them information on who might be a suspected drug dealer, prostitute, gambler or absentee father.