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*         ACTION ALERT - NATURIST ACTION COMMITTEE        * 
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* Bob Morton, NAC Chairman/Exec Dir:    ctnudists@aol.com *
* Scootch Pankonin, Gov't Affairs:      scootchdc@aol.com *
* Dennis Kirkpatrick, Online Rep:            nat@tiac.net *
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DATE: February 5, 2000

STATE: US National

SUBJECT: National Park Service Law Enforcement

NPS UNDERTAKES COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF THE AGENCY'S LAW ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM - YOUR EXPERIENCES AND IDEAS WILL HELP PROMOTE A POSITIVE APPROACH IN MANAGING CLOTHING-OPTIONAL AREAS

Naturists:

The Naturist Action Committee and the Naturist Education Foundation need the benefit of your ideas about the successes and failures of the law enforcement program conducted by the National Park Service. 

NPS announced recently that it will conduct a comprehensive study on how its law enforcement program is being managed. The study will be conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), a non-profit corporation with 17,000 members who are law enforcement executives, criminal justice researchers and university faculty in 85 countries. Their task is to highlight positive aspects of NPS law enforcement operations as well as deficiencies.

NAC and NEF see this study as much more than an opportunity to educate the National Park Service about managing positively for nude recreation. This is also an opportunity to put our message before the thousands of law enforcement analysts and executives associated with IACP in the United States and throughout the world. 

Here is an opportunity for your personal experiences and observations about law enforcement to benefit Naturism immensely. Share your ideas with NAC and NEF now. Help us prepare the definitive guide to law enforcement for clothing-optional sites at parks, seashores, forests, hot springs and other appropriate public lands. 

NAC and NEF's Law Enforcement Officer's Guide to Skinny-Dipping project promises to have an immediate, positive impact on the National Park Service's law enforcement program. In the future, published and electronic versions of the guide will be permanently useful for Naturist organizations and individuals who need to establish better relations with local, state or federal law enforcement officials.

Here are a few questions to answer, if they relate to your experiences-questions designed simply to kick-start your thought process. Don't let this list impede your imagination. NPS is taking an internal look at its law enforcement program, from top to bottom. NAC and NEF are looking for law enforcement criteria--from top to bottom--respecting and promoting all aspects of Naturism and Naturist activities. 

All answers and additional ideas are welcome and valuable to this process:

* Arrested or cited for mere nudity on public lands? Were you treated respectfully by the law enforcement officer. What was handled well by the officer. What was handled badly. How might the incident have been better managed by both the officer and by you.

* Are you a regular visitor to a traditional clothing-optional area on public land? What are law enforcement officers doing to respect and assist the Naturists' use of this area. What negative actions by officers are occurring. What steps could be taken by law officers or Naturists to improve the situation. 

* NAC assists many Naturists each year who have been cited for mere nudity in places where no law against mere nudity exists. How well informed are law enforcement officers in your area about laws (or lack thereof) that criminalize social nudity? 

* When a law enforcement agency decides to persecute nudists, enforcement costs and court costs born by the taxpayers and by Naturists escalate quickly, often to extraordinary levels. Where anti-nudity statutes exist, the "offense" is nonetheless a victimless crime. NAC has very little verified data about the social and economic costs of law enforcement purges directed at Naturists. A few examples of reliable data would be very helpful. 

Please forward your ideas to NAC's government affairs representative, Scootch Pankonin, by March 1, 2000. By mail, that's at The Naturist Society, PO Box 132, Oshkosh, WI 54902; by fax at 202/543-6870; or by email at <scootchdc@aol.com>. 

Thank you in advance for your help and for choosing to make a difference. 

Naturally,

Bob Morton, Chairman
Naturist Action Committee
Naturist Education Foundation