Nearly Naked Online Personal Ad

It's not unusual for Rhett Davis to wear a cowboy hat, sunglasses and cowboy boots. But when residents of this tiny town saw Davis in an ad posted on americansingles.com, they were amazed that he wasn't wearing anything else.

Davis, 45, is a lonesome cowboy. He also happens to be the police chief in this 700-person town in the Siskiyou Mountains southwest of Roseburg. No one is saying who found Davis' ad first, but within two days of its posting last week, it was all over town. Someone pinned the photo of the scantily clad chief --with the hat strategically placed on the community bulletin board at the town grocery. People handed copies of it to their neighbors and friends. Others sent it via e-mail to chains of people.

Davis, who intended only females seeking males in the 45-year-old age category to see the photo, quickly pulled it off the Web site. "That's nobody's business," he said, dressed in a dark blue patrol uniform Thursday. Besides, he said, he was wearing a swimsuit behind the cowboy hat. "I was a little self-conscious," he said of the bikini-style swimsuit. "They don't cover anything." So he used the hat for coverage.

Davis said he regrets using the photo, but it was the only one he had showing his athletic body. After all, his ad tells women not only that he's romantic and a bit of a dreamer, but, "I have a wild side, I am not shy and I can surprise you."

He just didn't expect to be the one surprised by his own photo. In Powers, Davis is the only full-time police officer and is both beloved and reviled. He gets high marks for helping start a program that pairs kids from low-income and broken homes with horses. But others complain that Davis has not done a good job of protecting Powers.

Susan Hempel admits to having e-mailed the photo around. She did it, she said, to draw attention to the town's lack of law enforcement. "We barely have coverage," she said, referring to the symbolism of the photo.

The police chief's image quickly went from the town bulletin board to Powers Mayor Jean LeCuyer, who gave it to the city manager, Davis' boss. LeCuyer said she was disappointed with his choice of photos but acknowledged that the online ad was Davis' personal business. "It was poor judgment," LeCuyer said, "but it has no effect on his job."