OC Beach Patrol issues orders on response to female toplessness

The Ocean City Beach Patrol has been issued official, if perhaps temporary, procedures for handling the issue of topless females on the town's beaches.

The bottom line — hands off.

In a memo dated Tuesday, June 6, Capt. Butch Arbin of the beach patrol said until the town has been issued a clear directive on how state laws are interpreted, complaints from beachgoers about bare-chested women are to be documented, but the women eliciting the complaint are not to be approached or engaged with.

The genesis of the issue was last summer, said Jessica Waters, spokesperson for Ocean City, when the beach patrol was contacted by an Eastern Shore resident, Chelsea Covington, who believed it was her legal right to bare her chest on the Ocean City beach.

BACKGROUND: Topless in OC? An open debate

RELATED:Police: Topless Md. woman resisted arrest in Rehoboth

Covington is an advocate for “top freedom,” the belief that women shouldn’t be obligated by the law to wear a shirt, as is the case with men.

She said that her stance is one of opposition to discrimination, and she believes the Maryland Constitution is on her side.

“People find male bare-chestedness pleasing to the eye and we are capable of giving it but a passing thought when we see a bare-chested male,” she said via email. “Men and women should be treated equally under the law.”

She said female toplessness is “a new normal for some parts of our society,” and draws a parallel to the 1930s, when society was shocked by women wearing pants.

“(We) adjusted to the point where few remember these things were ever issues,” she said. “I have faith that our society can grow again.”

Only three states outright forbid women from being topless in public: Indiana, Tennessee and Utah.

The issue was sent to Worcester County State’s Attorney Beau Oglesby, who then sent a request for an opinion from the Maryland Attorney General.

So far, official word has not been sent back down to the city, so law enforcement is in legal limbo.

“We’re just anxiously awaiting that opinion to see what the decision is,” Waters said. “We certainly respect Ms. Covington and her constitutional rights, but we have millions of people visiting Ocean City and we have to keep them in mind as well.

“That puts us in a very uneasy position,” she said.

Lindsay Richard, Ocean City Police Department spokeswoman, said problems caused by the issue have been practically nonexistent, and most commonly relegated to misunderstandings.

“Here in Ocean City, we do see quite a few (international students and workers) that may come from communities where it’s normal, but that’s usually the only issue we see,” she said. “Other than that we haven’t had an issue at all.”

Richard said until an opinion is issued from the attorney general’s office, department policy is to “approach the individual and ask them to put a top on with the understanding that we may not be able to take any enforcement action.”