County bans public nudity after man’s naked strolls spark concern

By Jocelyn Schifferdecker

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    WINFIELD, Kansas (KAKE) — The Cowley County Commission on Tuesday passed an ordinance banning public nudity after a naked man has been seen walking around the Arkansas City area on several occasions.

Previous story published April 15:

On Tuesday night, the Cowley County commissioners met to discuss a topic that has a lot of residents upset.

A man who lives south of Arkansas City has been seen publicly walking around naked on several occasions. Neighbors say he’s cut wood in his own front yard, walked out to the mailbox and even taken a walk on a public road near a school, all without clothes on.

Neighbors say they reached out to the Sheriff’s Office, but it says it can’t do anything because the man is not breaking the law.

Cowley County Sheriff David Falletti explains why this is. He says there is no county ordinance against nudity and he’s not violating the state law that covers it.

“The statute that deals with this closely is lewd and lascivious behavior and unfortunately, with that statute we have to show that he has an intent to arouse himself or others,” said Falletti. He says, in this case, the department hasn’t been able to do that.

Pam Crain is just one of the concerned citizens. She first learned about this on a Facebook post.

She said she was shocked to see it was happening, but after making some calls, she was even more shocked to find out it’s legal to be naked in Kansas.

She said her concerns are the fact that he is doing it around children and that there are families in the neighborhood who don’t feel like they can be outside.

While not illegal, county leaders understand why people are upset and are now actively looking to add an ordinance to stop this. The discussions started Tuesday night at the board of county commissioners meeting.

“It was found that the board direct and myself and the county counselor to work with the county attorney and county sheriff to present some options at the next meeting,” said Cowley County administrator Lucas Goff.

Crain says she’s glad to see the county stepping in.

“I’m proud of them and I expect that there will be something within a couple weeks,” said Crain.

Goff says there should be a proposed ordinance at the next meeting.

A neighbor told KAKE News where the man lives. We rang the doorbell, but he did not answer.

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