Hotel Men Seeking Way to Stop Use of Search Warrants

From The Indianapolis Times, Monday, January 24, 1921: Indianapolis hotel managers are seeking legal methods to protect themselves and their guests against unjustifiable abuse of search warrants issued by city courts and served by Federal prohibition enforcement agents. These warrants have given prohibition agents authority to search guest rooms and seize intoxicating liquor from these rooms. In Indiana it is not illegal to have liquor in one’s possession unless it is to be sold, and Indiana law requires seized liquor to be retained by the court issuing the warrant until a hearing determines for what purpose the liquor was kept. Federal agents have failed to turn over liquor seized in hotel rooms to the court. “Hotel men are not bootleggers and do not harbor guests who are in that line of business,” said the general manager of the Lincoln Hotel.