Indecent Esposure

[ItsMIke]

I've looked over the forums and haven't seen an answer to this specific question. Most states have three requirements to break their indecent exposure law. You must be exposed, there must be a witness and the witness must be offended. They seem to be carefully worded so that the actual crime is to offend someone with nudity, and not make nudity itself illegal. Here is my question: Can a police officer be the offended witness required by the laws? In other words, if I am outside naked, but nobody has seen me except a police officer, would I be breaking the indecent exposure law?
Another corollary question is: If it turns out that there does have to be another witness present, can a police officer still arrest me just to get me off the street, or for some other personal reason?
In case you're wondering this is not an actual thing that happened. I'm just curious about the technicality of it. The carefully crafted wording of the laws are what made me wonder. Thanks.

[retdetsgt]

First, if you're exposing yourself in public, I would highly recommend you get some professional help. Being tagged as a sex offender will ruin the rest of your life.

Secondly, every state is different. In Oregon, we have to show it was for sexual gratification of the offender, which isn't that difficult. That would exclude some drunk peeing in the street because he didn't know where he was. That's because we don't want to put a sex offender tag for something like that. But there doesn't have to be a second witness, we arrest and get convictions all the time with only the victim and offender testifying.

[mcsap]

I only have to show that you were in a place LIKELY to be seen by the public.

Just like a loud music call at 2 am in an apt building. I can arrest someone for Disorderly Conduct even
though I don't have a specific complaintant ( or they were anonymous).

But I agree with RDS in that if you have the need to expose yourself in any public place or a place likley to be seen by the public , you have some mental issues that you should seek help for before your only option is the prison psychologist.

[retdetsgt]

It appears from your post that you've been doing it and are now looking at way to get away with it. mcsap was correct in that state sex offender programs are only found in the state pen.

Just to add, in some states I think it's disorderly conduct, but here it's indecent exposure which is a sex crime. I worked sex crimes for a number of years and it's been shown that a lot of people convicted of more major sex offenses started with indecent exposure. Get arrested and convicted in Oregon for it and you have the sex offender tag for the rest of your life.

[L-1]

As the others have said, it will vary from state to state. In California, there is a violation when someone willfully and lewdly exposes his person, or the private parts thereof, in any
public place.

[TEXASCOP]

In Texas if you are reckless about weather another person is present who may be offended or alarmed. I don't have to ask if someone is offended or alarmed when I can see the look on their face. Oh and in Texas the police officer can be the offended person.

[cntryboy0531]

In Florida all it takes is you exposing yourself in front of someone else. Nothing in state law says I can't be the "victim" of that while on duty, however my State Attorney will not prosecute it generally if it's just me as the victim. Unless I can articulate that you reasonably could have been seen by others.

[ET109]

Here you can be arrested if you are in view of the public- you don't necessarily have to be seen by them. Often if its just some idiot kid we'll just charge with disorderly conduct because indecent exposure is a sex crime. If no one actually sees them, though, the only charge we have is indecent because disorderly conduct requires for someone to be offended (not indecent exposure as you put in your post).

As to your second line of questioning, a police officer can only arrest where he or she believes a crime has probably been committed. Then again, there are other options sometimes- if someone is emotionally disturbed they may be involuntarily taken for an evaluation. If someone is running around naked like an idiot that may apply...

[ItsMIke]

As I suspected would happen, most of you jumped to the conclusion that I was looking for a way to run around naked and have you tell me how to do it without getting caught. Shame on you! Do you guys realise that all of you betrayed a desire to make an arrest with little regard to whether a law was actually being broken? My question posed a hypothetical situation and asked if it qualified as a crime. From what I read here, if you guys were in that situation you would pretty much just decide what you want to do, then later pick the laws which can fit. I work for a retired police officer and he has that very same attitude. Is that a correct assessment of yours?

[Kimble]

Based on your attitude on the topic, go ahead and skip around your town naked. Having you registered as a sex offender may not be a bad idea.

As I suspected would happen, most of you jumped to the conclusion that I was looking for a way to run around naked and have you tell me how to do it without getting caught. Shame on you! Do you guys realise that all of you betrayed a desire to make an arrest with little regard to whether a law was actually being broken? My question posed a hypothetical situation and asked if it qualified as a crime. From what I read here, if you guys were in that situation you would pretty much just decide what you want to do, then later pick the laws which can fit. I work for a retired police officer and he has that very same attitude. Is that a correct assessment of yours?

[ItsMIke]

Based on your attitude on the topic, go ahead and skip around your town naked. Having you registered as a sex offender may not be a bad idea.

First, if I had set up my account with a screen name like "PrettyTeen19" or even "Jennifer25" you would not have made that comment. But that aside, can you please leave your own bad attitude out of my thread? I made my comment and then asked if I was correct. That's an invitation for you to either confirm or repudiate what I said. It's not an invitation to start sniping at me. Your comment may have made you feel good, but it doesn't add anything to my discussion.
If we can get back on the topic. My question was about the requirements for getting arrested for indecent exposure. If you put a little thought into it, it's also about whether that arrest will lead to a conviction at a trial. The wording of the laws in most states are similar as far as I've read. And they mostly require that someone be offended by what they see. If it makes you feel better about the discussion, instead of me let's hypothesize a 30 year old woman who wants to go outside naked. If nobody sees her except you, or if someone does but isn't offended (and that's very likely for a pretty girl) would the law be violated and what would you do about it if it turns out it wasn't? And while I'm at it here's another interesting question. If it was a pretty girl that you saw, my guess would be that you (if you're a male police officer) would not be offended at the sight. So if your the only witness, would she be breaking the law?

[DeltaV]

Florida has two different laws, one is simply Exposure of Sexual Organs and the other is Lewd & Lascivious Exhibition. You don't need a "victim" for Exposure of Sexual Organs since the statute says it's illegal to be naked in public or expose your sexual organs. In order to arrest for L&L, a victim helps the case immensely, but that doesn't mean the victim actually has to see you. They just have to be able to see you.

That said, I'm puzzled as to why someone would have such an interest in exposing themselves in public that they go around the Internet researching laws in all the different states. Seems a bit weird to me.

[Cat_Doc]

That said, I'm puzzled as to why someone would have such an interest in exposing themselves in public that they go around the Internet researching laws in all the different states. Seems a bit weird to me.

Maybe he is trying to decide which state he wants to move to?

[G35 Mass]

Someone take the iPhone away from the occutard please....

[Kimble]

But that aside, can you please leave your own bad attitude out of my thread? I made my comment and then asked if I was correct. That's an invitation for you to either confirm or repudiate what I said. It's not an invitation to start sniping at me. Your comment may have made you feel good, but it doesn't add anything to my discussion.

Just as you can choose what questions you post, I get to choose how I respond to them. If you don't like the responses you've got, feel free to find another website to creep out.