In August of 2009 I asked a number of former Camden police officers if they could shed some light on a character who was called "No Nose" who I used to see on Federal Street in the late 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. In the course of these inquiries I was contacted by Chris Yeager, who had served in the department. Chris recommended that I speak with his father, William Yeager, now 93, who first served with the Camden Police Department in 1942 and retired from public service after holding the post of Camden's Director of Public Safety in 1973. 

I first met Mr. Yeager on September 4, 2009. In preparation for this meeting I bought digital voice recorder... which I forgot to turn on until 30 minutes into our conversation.  I have no experience as an interviewer, which you will find out below. We both enjoyed the talk, and agreed to continue recording

his memories of people, places and events that took place during his career. We've also spoke about his childhood, growing up first in Collingswood and then in North Camden.

Mr. Yeager tells it as it was, and he was there to see it. I am quite grateful to him for his taking the time to share his experiences with me for the website. Much of what is on this site is taken from newspapers and other second hand sources, I feel quite fortunate in being able to present to you a first-hand account of the life and times of a Camden policeman from the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

As with any other group of people, there are things that happened that one can either say are good or bad. The purpose here is not to embarrass any individual, especially those long gone, but rather to show that the human condition, i.e., people's behavior, was not all that different then than now. Every police officer spoken of here dealt with things on a daily basis that the rest of society would rather not deal with, or even acknowledge, and for that we owe a debt of our gratitude. If some had failings on an individual basis, well, haven't we all? To understand, first we have to know, and with that in mind, I've chosen to report here what was told to me by a source I hold to be unimpeachable.

The audio you will hear was recorded in WMA format. I've used Windows Movie Maker and using pictures and excerpted sections of the audio have produced the WMV video files that you will find below.

More material will be added on a continuing basis. I've over an hour of raw audio that I have not formatted yet, and Mr. Yeager and I will be speaking again several days from now.

Phil Cohen
September 12, 2009

Not long after I had written the above, I had a health issue of my own, and Mr. Yeager and I did not meet again. He passed away peacefully in August of 2011. My intention is to process the remaining raw audio prior to the memorial service scheduled for him on October 1, 2011.

Phil Cohen
August 17, 2011