Prices's ability to speak the argot of the criminal underworld made a deep impression on convicts and some thought he must have actually been imprisoned himself. A critic, Reverend Thomas Rogers, said that he would disguise himself as a constable and move around Hobart, seeking disorderly characters. Hazzard claims that "he seemed to know, with terrifying accuracy, the way a criminal's mind worked, and this, coupled with his merciless administering of the Law, gave him an almost hypnotic power over them". Another suggestion was that Price, who had an extremely close relationship with a convict overseer, was homosexual and had gained his knowledge and flashy dress sense from moving in the covert rough trade gay scene during his earlier life in England.