Police in Golden Valley, Minnesota, are coming under fire after using a drone to identify nude visitors to a remote beach at Twin Lake. Police said they have received numerous complaints from beachgoers relating to nudity, public intoxication, and drug use, and have been working to ensure the beach is safe for everybody.
Locals say that visitors have an understanding that clothing is optional at the beach, but authorities disagree and said that nudity is banned. Officers said they tried to educate beachgoers about the rules, but people continued to ignore them.
"It had reached the point where it was time for people to be held accountable for their actions," Golden Valley Police Det. Sgt. Randy Mahlen said.
The department decided to step up enforcement and used a drone to identify people who were not wearing clothes. After identifying the individuals, seven officers showed up with plans to write citations.
By the time the officers arrived, everybody at the beach was clothed. As they tried to question the women who they captured violating the rules against nudity, many beachgoers came to the defense of the women.
As the crowd became increasingly hostile to the police, the officers decided to leave without writing any citations.
"We made the choice that things were only escalating, and we chose to leave," Mahlen said.
The people on the beach were creeped out by the fact that the police had used drones to spy on them.
"I don't like that," Kristian Calbert said, according to KARE. "If you come up to me right now and tell me 40 minutes ago, I was doing something, but you won't provide any proof, and that's enough to get me in trouble, I don't think that's okay."
The department's decision to use drones to crack down on nudity comes as the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board is considering a plan to repeal the ordinance that makes it illegal for women to be topless in public.
Photo: YouTube/KARE