SHANE SU­PERVILLE

Se­nior Re­porter

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) in charge of Op­er­a­tions and Gold Com­man­der for the State of Emer­gency (SoE) Suzette Mar­tin says the re­sponse to crim­i­nal­i­ty has record­ed some suc­cess­es, notwith­stand­ing con­tin­ued homi­cides.

As of Tues­day morn­ing, there have been 96 mur­ders for the year so far, com­pared with 106 for the same pe­ri­od in 2025.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions sent through the TTPS Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Unit on Tues­day, DCP Mar­tin dis­missed con­cerns that the on­go­ing SoE was in­ef­fec­tive, call­ing such claims "sim­ply not ac­cu­rate."

"The State of Emer­gency is work­ing,” she as­sert­ed. “It is dis­rupt­ing crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty, re­strict­ing move­ment and al­low­ing us to act with greater speed and au­thor­i­ty.”

"The pub­lic may not see every suc­cess, but the re­sults are there: ar­rests, firearm seizures and the dis­man­tling of crim­i­nal op­er­a­tions,” the se­nior cop not­ed.

She added: "We will not mea­sure suc­cess based on iso­lat­ed in­ci­dents. We mea­sure it by the sus­tained pres­sure we are ap­ply­ing and the long-term im­pact on crime."

DCP Mar­tin said the TTPS re­mains in con­trol, not­ing of­fi­cers are "fo­cused, re­lent­less" and pre­pared to con­tin­ue tak­ing the fight to crim­i­nals.

Re­spond­ing to the mur­der of An­tho­ny Leroy Fran­cis and the wound­ing of his preg­nant girl­friend dur­ing an ear­ly morn­ing at­tack at his Moo­nan Road, Waller­field home on Tues­day, DCP Mar­tin de­scribed the in­ci­dent as "brazen and un­ac­cept­able."

"The North­ern Di­vi­sion North will see an im­me­di­ate surge in po­lice pres­ence—more tar­get­ed op­er­a­tions and greater in­tel­li­gence-led in­ter­ven­tions,” she stat­ed.

"We are al­ready pur­su­ing strong leads,” she said, “and in­tend to bring those re­spon­si­ble to jus­tice."