Portland One-visit Crowns

Parole officers use care and street smarts to save Portland gang ...

&Nbsp;Multnomah County parole officer Carl Green parks his unmarked maroon Crown Victoria in front of a North Portland home, radios his location to dispatch and knocks on the front door.

"Is Damon home?"

Damon McDonald shows his face and steps out on the front stoop. But Green isn't interested in talking outside.

"Let me see your room," Green says.

McDonald, 20, leads Green into the house. The parole officer, built like a football lineman, has to squeeze to follow him down a narrow staircase to a dark, unfinished basement. McDonald sits on his queen-size bed and grabs the controls of his video game, his eyes locked on the TV.

"What's been happening with you? I ain't seen you in a couple of weeks, almost a month," Green says, keeping up the small talk while he walks around, looking for guns or drugs.

Finding nothing, Green tells McDonald he's aware his infant boy died and it's not an easy thing to get over, but he has to report. "Be there, Wednesday, 10 o'clock. No excuses."

Green is soon back in his car, headed to the next surprise home visit to one of the 55 to 60 gang offenders he is responsible for monitoring.

Multnomah County parole officer Carl Green is one of four full-time parole officers who together supervise approximately 250 gang members on parole or probation in Multnomah County. With seven gang-related homicides in Portland so far this year, the county’s parole officers are teaming up with police, prosecutors and gang outreach workers to do everything they can to cool the streets. Green is one of four full-time parole officers who together supervise about 250 gang members on parole or probation in Multnomah County. It's an impossible job to track what each offender is up to every minute of the day. But with seven gang-related homicides in Portland so far this year and bullets flying almost every night, the county's parole officers are teaming up with police, prosecutors and gang outreach workers to do everything they can to cool down the streets.

To the people on their caseload, parole officers are constantly drumming in the message of making good choices, staying safe and out of trouble. The average gang offender will spend three years under county supervision, and almost a third of them will be rearrested during that time.

Green, 40, has been a parole officer for 15 years and is starting to see third- and fourth-generation gang members.

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