People who want to celebrate their freedom on Independence Day sunning at Lake Tahoe are going to need to wear some clothes.

That's according to law enforcement officials on the Nevada side of the lake who are cracking down on public nudity at longtime clothing-optional beaches, report The Reno Gazette Journal, which is part of the USA TODAY Network.

The warning comes in advance of the Fourth of July, one of the biggest days of the year for Tahoe beachgoers, clothed and unclothed alike.

The prospect of a police crackdown on nudity is worrying for people who like to wear minimal to no clothing in order to maximize their Tahoe summer experience.

"It is scary, people are frightened," said Guy Dannehl, president of Tahoe Area Naturists, following a weekend confrontation with Washoe County Sheriff's Office deputies at Creek Beach, a longtime clothing-optional beach on the east shore.

The confrontation occurred Saturday afternoon and a beachgoer recorded a portion of it with a smartphone and posted it on Facebook.

Although the beach is on U.S. Forest Service land within the boundary of Carson City, law enforcement agencies around the lake have agreements to enforce laws across jurisdictional boundaries.

In the video from Saturday, it's difficult to hear everything the deputy says to beachgoers over the sound of waves lapping the beach. But she clearly tells people they're in violation of Nevada law covering public nudity and warns them they could be charged with a "sex crime" if they don't cover up.

Beachgoers can be heard telling the deputy the beach has long been clothing-optional and is marked with signs stating as much.

"I don’t need to check out the sign," the deputy can be heard saying. "I'm telling you what the (state law) says and giving you guys a warning out of courtesy. ... It is considered a sex crime."

Bryan Eidem, the beachgoer who shot the video, said the confrontation was a stark departure from typical law enforcement visits to the beach, which he described as friendly and respectful.

"I don’t know why they would threaten us and tell us we are going to be charged with sex crimes for sunbathing," Eidam said.

While Creek Beach sunbathers expressed surprise and anger at the confrontation, a spokesman for the Washoe County Sheriff's Office said bad behavior by beachgoers at Secret Harbor, just to the north of Creek Beach, precipitated the incident.

"If they didn’t behave in the way they did, we may not have noticed," spokesman Bob Harmon said. "They were pretty actively lewd and obscene."

According to Harmon, there were people "up on the rocks waving their private parts around and being obscene toward the deputies."

"This is not just a number of people minding their own business," Harmon said.

During the video at Creek Beach, there is no point at which the deputy identifies any specific lewd behavior, and there were no arrests.

Harmon said deputies notified the Carson City Sheriff's Office, and deputies visited the beaches the following day.

"Yesterday we did a sweeping of the beaches," Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong said on Monday. "All of the nude beachgoers, if you will, were told they had to clothe themselves."

Furlong said even though Lake Tahoe's east shore is a longtime haven for nude swimming and sunbathing, public nudity is against both state and local laws.

He also said policing nudity at Lake Tahoe isn't a high priority and blamed beachgoers for prompting the police crackdown.

"What happened was a confrontation with law enforcement brought on by … the nudists," Furlong said. "There was no call for those beachgoers to be obscene and rude to the officers."

Carson City District Attorney Jason Woodbury said penalties for the local ordinance wouldn't be classified under sex crimes. But the state law, Woodbury said, carries a potential gross misdemeanor penalty for a first offense and a Class D felony for a second offense.

Eidem said he didn't see any lewd activity at Creek Beach while the deputies were present or any other time he's visited. He added that the deputies floated parts of the shoreline that weren't visible from Creek Beach, where the video took place.

"There was nothing like that happening on our beach at all," he said.

Creek Beach is a small and secluded beach near the mouth of Secret Creek as it drains into Lake Tahoe.

The beach, as well as nearby Secret Harbor, Secret Cove and Whale Beach, has been known as clothing-optional for decades.

The Tahoe Area Naturists pick up trash, help maintain trails and enforce rules against glass bottles, marijuana smoking and lewd activity, according to Dannehl.

Naturists have been organizing parties and cleanups on the beach since at least the 1980s, according to Tahoe Area Naturists. And they've cooperated with the Forest Service and law enforcement to maintain the beach and trails and enforce rules just as long.

On Tuesday, Harmon said although the obscene behavior was at Secret Harbor, people going clothes-free at any beach are still breaking the law.

"The point was there is no legally sanctioned beach that I'm aware of in Nevada that allows for nudity," Harmon said.

He added that more visitation to Lake Tahoe's east shore raises the prospect of more scrutiny on clothing-optional beaches altogether.

"With the increase in tourism in that area … this may be kind of a longstanding tradition, if you will, that may have to be reviewed," Harmon said.

Dannehl said the loss of clothing-optional status would threaten the cleanliness, health and generally mellow vibe Creek Beach provides to clothed and unclothed beachgoers.

"The reason it is nice is because the naturists have taken care of it," he said.