“Some behaviors we will not tolerate,” Keplinger said.
By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The City of Parsons Police Department recently received a report of a nude individual in River City Park near the ball field recently, according to City of Parsons Police Chief Kevin Keplinger. “Some behaviors we will not tolerate,” Keplinger said. “Public nudity is one of those.”
According to Keplinger the individual was found naked in a motor vehicle with the door open. Keplinger went on to say that the incident occcurred near the ball field in the area of the Dug Out Diner and in view of families with children. “There is no excuse for someone sitting in a motor vehicle with the door open, completely naked and in view of families and children,” Keplinger said. “We will not tolerate it.”
Keplinger said his department has a zero tolerance policy to behavior of the sort and that the behavior would be charged as a felony due to repeated offenses of indecent exposure. “There’s an individual tomorrow that will find out,” Keplinger said. “And I believe you learn something new every day, third and subsequent offense indecent exposure is a felony.”
According to Keplinger, he has been in contact with Tucker County Prosecuting Attorney Savannah Hull Wilkins about the case and that her office is dedicated to prosecuting the case to the full extent of the law. “He will be charged, he will be processed,” Keplinger said. “I have talked to the Prosecutor about it. She is going to prosecute to the fullest extent of her power.”
Keplinger said the incident was on Facebook and that a miscommunication with a dispatcher was the likely reason that his department did not apprehend the individual on the scene. “That incident was on Facebook,” Keplinger said. “We were immediately on it. The only thing that probably kept us from catching the guy on scene was kind of a mis-cu with 911. They called it in at Mill Race Park and it was at River City Park.”
According to Keplinger, once his department figured out that they had been sent to the wrong park, the individual had already left River City Park. “By the time we figured out he wasn’t (at Mill Race Park) and went (to River City Park) he had already left,” Keplinger said.
Keplinger said that he and his department continue to work on the case.
Keplinger said his department has seen an increase in calls and are on pace to exceed last year’s number of calls for service and as of June 30th, exceeded the number of calls received in 2022. “We have already, as of the last of last month, had more calls than in 2022 and at this pace by the end of July, early August, exceeded last years calls for service,” Keplinger said.
However, Keplinger said most calls are of the nature of quality of life calls and calls that can be handled and closed on scene. “A lot of them are just basic quality of life calls,” Keplinger said. “Things we are typically handling on scene.”
