Predatory People

Keeping Predatory People Out of the Library:
Know the Signs of Harm
Part of the Library 2.0 Service, Safety, and Security Series with Dr. Steve Albrecht

OVERVIEW: 

This webinar covers predatory individuals in your library who pose threats to patrons, staff, and others through dangerous behaviors and activities. This particularly includes those who groom minors or at-risk women for sexual exploitation, as well as a small subset of highly unstable people potentially among your library’s homeless patrons (where housing status is not the root cause of the danger but is identifiably correlated with underlying issues).

• An example of grooming behavior. A disturbing story from Portland, Oregon details the December 6, 2025 arrest of a 23-year-old man at the Central Library for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl who had run away from home. The suspect had met the girl outside the library and had assaulted her over a span of three days in a motel. She was able to get help when she went into the library to use the restroom and notified the staff, who called Portland Police.
• Homeless patrons identified as predatory. We can define these individuals as having four distinct behaviors: untreated and out-of-control drug/alcohol use; untreated and out-of-control mental illness; frequent and hostile criminal justice system contact; and long-term, chronic homelessness. They often use violence to threaten, steal, or harm others. They are completely different than the majority of homeless patrons who use the library correctly.

These two types illustrate the concern all library leaders and staff should have when they see individuals inside the library who may be engaging in grooming behaviors, aimed at at-risk women or minor children, or the small number of homeless who seek to prey on other patrons or staff with aggressive, or even life-threatening behaviors.

Much of our response as library staff to these potentially harmful situations will involve careful observations, awareness of warning signs, confirmation conversations with co-workers and bosses, and the power of intuition–when things and people seem wrong.

All staff need to know what to do, who to call, when to do it, and how to intervene, safely and effectively. And we will need to create good relationships with the police to make sure they respond appropriately.

LEARNING AGENDA: 

• Child exploitation cases connected to the library can range from in-person or online grooming behaviors from pedophiles targeting minor children, to prostitution recruitment efforts by pimps, to sexual assaults in the restrooms or hidden parts of the stacks.
• All library staff must be aware of grooming or contact-seeking behaviors and not rely only on “profiles” of loitering men who seek conversations with children not related to them or with at-risk women.
• How to intervene without making a public scene, but before it’s too late.
• Grooming prevention resources like the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) taskforces, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) websites.
• How to identify and prevent disruptive access by predatory homeless people.

DATE: Thursday, Jan 15, 2026, 2:00 - 3:00 pm US - Eastern Time