By Jim Hannah
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FLORENCE - Northern Kentucky libraries and police are tightening security after two reports of a man exposing himself to young girls in the children's sections of libraries.

The first report was Jan. 19 in the Erlanger branch of the Kenton County Public Library. The following Monday a man with a similar description exposed himself at the Florence branch of the Boone County Public Library, said Florence police Lt. Tim Chesser.

The two reports - combined with similar crimes last summer in Scott and Mercer counties - have prompted librarians to take extra precautions.

Erlanger police Lt. Kevin Gilpin said library officials in his city are positioning security cameras and sending out warnings.

"We may have a serial flasher in the areas targeting libraries," an e-mail warns Campbell County library staff members. "Please be alert to people in the building ... We are not setting up a dragnet. We are trying to avoid a child (or anyone) being traumatized."

In Florence, a 9-year-old girl and her 11-year-old sister told their mother that a man exposed himself to them. The mother, who was also at the library, didn't see the incident but followed the man out of the library.

He is described as a skinny, white man of about 35 to 40 years old, with salt-and-pepper hair and a thin, square face. He was wearing a dark blue sweat shirt, blue jeans and was seen driving away in a white sedan.

Chesser, spokesman for Florence police, said detectives were working with Erlanger police on possible suspects.

Gilpin said the girl flashed in the Kenton County library was five years old and could not give a good description.

A videotape of a man acting suspiciously around the same time as that incident shows a man who fits the description given in the Florence case.

Last summer, a man was exposing himself to girls in libraries and parks across central and Northern Kentucky. The man is in federal custody awaiting sentencing after being convicted on child pornography charges.

Anyone with information in the most recent cases is asked to call Florence police at (859) 647-5420 or Crime Stoppers at (513) 352-3040.

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E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com