BEND, OR -- Bend Police have released footage from the body-cams worn by two officers who responded to the report of a naked woman in a neighborhood last week. After a TikTok video went viral last week, Chief Mike Krantz says he needed to respond to complaints about the decision not to arrest the woman. "Rather than allowing a one-minute, very inaccurate clip of the video to set the narrative, we chose to release the entire 20-minute interaction between the police officer and the complainant, to really show we have nothing to hide; this is the Oregon law, this is how our police officer did it." Under state law, public nudity is not illegal if there is no sexual intent. Krantz says, "I thought the officer did a tremendous job of explaining it, being patient, being calm, and really hearing both sides. And then making the decision based on the information they had, which, as we know under Oregon law, is appropriate."

He acknowledges even some police don't agree with every law. Krantz compares enforcing Oregon’s indecency laws to drug decriminalization passed in 2020, "We were bound by the Oregon law to take those new laws and work with them. So, similar to this, I don’t think anyone thinks it’s a good idea to have people randomly walking around in the nude. However, the Oregon law is pretty clear and case law has supported that unless there’s a sexual arousal intent, it’s not a crime in this state." Krantz adds, "We don’t necessarily think that the laws may be reflective of what the community desires or what we as police officers, individually, would think is appropriate. But, we don’t have the luxury of putting our own opinions and subjective thoughts into the law."

The 20-minute interaction includes two officers asking the woman to remain clothed in public and telling her she'll be arrested for trespassing if she returns to her neighbor's house.