One spot eyed for the list, a hot tub at the New York Loft Hostel in Bushwick, may need to be reconsidered. The hot tub was taken out last year, a receptionist there said, after becoming an occasional clothing-optional hangout. The removal was “very possibly for that reason,” she said.

A minor offense most often classified as either “exposure of a person” (a violation) or public lewdness (a misdemeanor), it is not the sort of crime that makes the blotter in New York, as it might elsewhere. Faced with a boisterous bunch of naked swimmers, many officers just shake their heads. “Move along” is more likely to be heard than “You’re under arrest.”

“They were like: ‘Get out of the water. Oh, and put on your bathing suits,” said Ashira Siegel, 35, remembering when a late-night adventure on Coney Island a few summers ago was interrupted by the police. No tickets were issued. “They were just amused, just kind of like, ‘Yeah, yeah, O.K.’ Very New York cop,” she said. “They’ve seen it all anyways.” (She said she did not join her friends in stripping down.)

Near the glowing Wonder Wheel on a recent Saturday night, an officer leaning against a banister said he could count on one finger the number of skinny-dippers he had seen given tickets. “There was a guy today, but that was for public lewdness; a disturbed individual wandered onto the beach,” he said, declining to be identified because of the subject matter and a lack of prior approval from Police Headquarters.

“Try Brighton Beach,” he added. “That’s where the Russian guys are. But not now. After 5 p.m. or 6, when the lifeguards go home and the families leave, they’ll do it.”

By that beach, about a mile away, two officers standing under a streetlight said there had been a confirmed sighting earlier in the day. “There was one nude swimmer earlier, a female I think, but that’s it,” one said. Neither could remember if she had been given a summons.