Topless women will no longer get a scolding from resort town’s beach patrol

Women who sunbathe topless at a Maryland resort town used to get a scolding from beach patrol officers, but that has changed.

WBOC-TV reports Capt. Butch Arbin, head of Ocean City Beach Patrol, said in a memo Tuesday that workers should document complaints of toplessness, but they shouldn’t approach topless women – even if beachgoers request it.

Chelsea Covington, an advocate for normalizing toplessness, asked Worcester County’s state’s attorney last year to examine the law. He, in turn, asked Maryland’s attorney general for an opinion. Officials haven’t heard back.

For years, Arbin says the beach patrol would just tell topless women “Hey, you can’t do that.” But without an opinion from the attorney general, he says they don’t feel like they can tell women not to sunbathe topless.

This story was originally published June 8, 2017 at 11:57 AM with the headline "Topless women will no longer get a scolding from resort town’s beach patrol."