The na­tion’s pro­tec­tors trad­ed uni­forms for stage lights and ser­vice weapons for mi­cro­phones when the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion host­ed its 4th An­nu­al Pro­tec­tive Arms Monarch Com­pe­ti­tion at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s.

Be­fore a packed au­di­to­ri­um of col­leagues, fam­i­ly mem­bers and sup­port­ers, mem­bers of the Pro­tec­tive Arms—the Po­lice Ser­vice, Fire Ser­vice, Prison Ser­vice and De­fence Force—proved that be­yond dis­ci­pline and du­ty lies a deep reser­voir of cul­tur­al tal­ent.

Six­teen con­tes­tants took to the stage in a spir­it­ed dis­play of artistry, each rep­re­sent­ing their re­spec­tive ser­vice with pride.

The au­di­ence was treat­ed to a vi­brant show­case of ca­lyp­so, so­ca, chut­ney so­ca and gospe­lyp­so, re­flect­ing the rich mu­si­cal ta­pes­try of Trinidad and To­ba­go. From so­cial­ly con­scious lyrics to high-en­er­gy per­for­mances that had pa­trons wav­ing and singing along, the com­pe­ti­tion un­der­scored how deeply em­bed­ded the arts are with­in the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty com­mu­ni­ty.

At stake was a prize pool of $200,000, with the win­ner walk­ing away with $20,000. Sec­ond place earned $15,000, third place $10,000 and fourth place $5,000.

As the per­for­mances un­fold­ed, judges faced the chal­leng­ing task of eval­u­at­ing vo­cal abil­i­ty, lyri­cal con­tent, stage pres­ence and over­all im­pact—no easy feat giv­en the cal­i­bre of the com­peti­tors.

When the re­sults were an­nounced, it was Make­da Dar­ius, known on stage as Tri­ni Macky, of the Po­lice Ser­vice, who emerged vic­to­ri­ous.

Her per­for­mance in the Tal­ent and Trib­ute seg­ment earned her the first-place ti­tle and the $20,000 prize, draw­ing thun­der­ous ap­plause from the au­di­ence.

Sec­ond place went to Nicholas Ash­by of the Prison Ser­vice, whose com­mand­ing de­liv­ery se­cured him $15,000, while Suresh Ram­per­sad of the De­fence Force claimed third place and $10,000 for his per­for­mance.

Each fi­nal­ist demon­strat­ed that the com­mit­ment to ex­cel­lence in their pro­fes­sion­al roles ex­tends seam­less­ly to the per­form­ing arts.

The evening was fur­ther el­e­vat­ed by guest per­for­mances that kept the en­er­gy high be­tween com­pet­i­tive sets. Robert Deene, al­so known as Mas­ter G, de­liv­ered his 2026 re­lease Doh Put Mih Dey, while vet­er­an ca­lyp­son­ian John­ny King re­mind­ed pa­trons of the en­dur­ing pow­er of the art­form.

The Prison Band added its own dy­nam­ic touch, round­ing out a pro­gramme that blend­ed com­pe­ti­tion with cel­e­bra­tion.

There was a spe­cial trib­ute to Roger Alexan­der, for­mer Vice Pres­i­dent of the Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion and now Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty.

In recog­ni­tion of his years of ser­vice and con­tri­bu­tion to the Pro­tec­tive Arms com­mu­ni­ty, he was pre­sent­ed with a pi­o­neer plaque by the As­so­ci­a­tion’s pres­i­dent, sec­re­tary and ex­ec­u­tive mem­bers. The trib­ute drew a stand­ing ova­tion, sym­bol­is­ing the re­spect he con­tin­ues to com­mand with­in the fra­ter­ni­ty.

As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent Nathalie John and Sergeant Et­ta Brown, the com­pe­ti­tion’s or­gan­is­ers, ex­pressed pride in the event’s steady growth over the past four years. They not­ed that what be­gan as an ini­tia­tive to fos­ter ca­ma­raderie and show­case hid­den tal­ent has evolved in­to a high­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed fix­ture on the cul­tur­al cal­en­dar.

They al­so ex­tend­ed heart­felt thanks to the Chief of De­fence Staff, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Com­mis­sion­er of Pris­ons and Chief Fire Of­fi­cer for their sup­port, along with spon­sors in­clud­ing the Po­lice As­so­ci­a­tion, Trinidad & To­ba­go Mort­gage Bank, Guardian Group, Black­mans Air­con­di­tion­ing, ANZ En­ter­pris­es, Broth­ers Elec­tri­cal, Leef Com­pa­ny, Sev­enth Day Ad­ven­tist Hos­pi­tal and Twin Is­land Ship­ping Agen­cies, as well as the Prison and Fire As­so­ci­a­tions.