Suspected serial flasher arrested

Police arrested a 42-year-old San Francisco man Thursday afternoon in Fremont, on suspicion of exposing himself to females.

At 12:15 p.m., officers arrested Richard Dawson at Southland Mall in Hayward, after they identified him as the suspect in several recent reports of a male exposing himself to female victims, police said.

Dawson is a registered sex offender, according to police.

After obtaining a warrant for Dawson’s arrest, detectives and plain-clothes officers with the Fremont Police Department Street Crimes Unit followed Dawson from San Francisco to Hayward, where they took him into custody, police said.

Officers booked him into the Fremont City Jail.