Flashers will face harsher penalties under legislation passed by the City Council yesterday. The law targets individuals who commit lewd acts in public more than once in a three year period, allowing judges to sentence them to as long as a year in jail. They could also be hit with three years of probation and a fine of $1,000.

“We are moving to punish a pattern of behavior that is not only disgusting but dangerous. Those who repeatedly expose themselves to others for their own amusement could one day take their perversion even further,” the bill’s sponsor, City Council member Peter Vallone, said yesterday. “If they want to expose themselves we’ll expose them to the full extent of the law.”