In my line of work I interact with many homeless people and I have heard complaints from them about this specific security company. Same type of stuff, harrassment, fighting, cuffing etc.

These guys need to be put out of business asap! They are scary!

You said you had contacted the state's agency--DPSST--who have done nothing to prevent Soleim from operating his little lucrative enterprise, and as I dig deep down the memory-hole, seems as I recall that Soleim was buddy-buddy once with DPSST's head John Minnis at one time and may have been heavy-duty campaign contributor to either John or Karen's respective runs for office in the past, and if so, then Soleim is just getting "return on investment" as the file is either lost, waylaid, forgotten or they simply just don't give a damned to do anything about him. Heck, look what old John did for Bernie today. Let him do a skate on all his well-documented and well-known problems, so why are we to think John will do any different with Soleim?

I agree this is truely chilling. what is worse is that right now there is little to no oversight outside of DPSST for these folks. the typical response from DPSST, from what I understand, is when they get a complaint about a private security person, is to turn it over to the company who the person works for... not exactly the most effective way of combating this rather scarey problem.
that is why I think private security oversite is so important, especially for companies contracting with a public institution, which the DPSST handles inefectively and the IPR does not cover.

When I was DPSST trained to dispatch and use LEDS/NCIC I was told to never use the word "suspect." We were trained to say "subject" instead.

It's weird that they used this language.

Not important, just musing.

There's a disturbing trend of businesses hiring security firms that don't seem beholden to the same rules as our local police. It's kind of like Blackwater.

The problem starts and rest in the lap of king kookie potter and the klowns on the city council. They want to coddle the bums and see them as a justifiable ends to a means to sooth their guilty white consience. The bums will take everything and then ask for more. They will refuse to work and indulge in narcotics. There is nothing wrong with a helping hand by caring people but the city has gone nuts with our charity. Having said that it is the reason that there are so many bums in this town and the reason that they are out of control. If we took the stance of NO VAGRANCY ALLOWED!!! This would not be a problem. Now if the security guards hassel them or arrest them who the hell cares? Would you rather be paying the family members thousands of dollars when the police shoot them? Police have better things to do than shoo away bums or get involved in an incident that causes the fu**ing bum to be shot. So leave the security guards alone and let them play interferance or cop with the bums..

maybe they can change their name collectively with the PBA guys to "Blackwater Portland". or better yet, for the closeness of their relationship to the actual citizens of Portland "Legion Etranger"

"Friends of Meatpuppet"
I would suggest you contact me sometime and I can show you why I feel you are wrong.
I am sure that we would both agree that at its root, the word "homeless" means "without a home".
Northwest Pilot Projects puts out a great book about the state of low income housing in downtown every year, called "the Downtown Affordable Housing Inventory". its a great read if you are going to make claims about homelessness in Portland. another nice read on this subject that will drive home the above books messege is "Without Housing" by the Western Regional Advocacy Project, which Sisters Of The Road is a founding member of. you can download the report at www.wraphome.org
both explain in great detail why affordable housing is absent in the United States, making our "homelessness" problem epidemic.
as a country, we need to stop making excuses and start looking at root causes of homelessness and ending it. durring the 80s we both gutted the HUD low income housing budget and enacted legislation that put the hope for a living wage out of the working poor's reach. this turned America's homeless problem from a minor issue in to an institution.
thank you
Patrick

Oh, and don't forget how Reagan closed down most of the mental institutions, leaving a lot of sick people with nowhere to go... well, except to Old Town.