Shar­lene Ram­per­sad

Se­nior In­ves­tiga­tive Re­porter

shar­lene.ram­per­sad@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice and sol­diers can­not be de­ployed un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act un­til they are trained in hu­man rights, the use of force and con­flict de-es­ca­la­tion, rais­ing ques­tions about how soon the new crime-fight­ing pow­ers can be put in­to ef­fect.

The TTPS Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Man­ag­er said the ser­vice would not dis­close when op­er­a­tions un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act would take ef­fect, cit­ing se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns, but as­sured that the TTPS would be trans­par­ent and ac­count­able once the op­er­a­tions are im­ple­ment­ed.

In the Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, po­lice of­fi­cers will be­gin work­ing new shifts to­day, Sun­day, as prepa­ra­tions for the roll­out of the op­er­a­tions move apace, a se­nior of­fi­cer said.

The Act, which es­tab­lish­es sev­en polic­ing dis­tricts and gives the au­thor­i­ties the pow­er to de­clare spe­cif­ic lo­ca­tions closed ar­eas dur­ing tar­get­ed op­er­a­tions, is in­tend­ed to tack­le se­ri­ous crime with­out the need for a na­tion­wide State of Emer­gency.

How­ev­er, the ef­fec­tive­ness of the new law will de­pend not on­ly on the pow­ers it grants, but al­so on the readi­ness of the of­fi­cers ex­pect­ed to en­force it and their abil­i­ty to do so with­out in­fring­ing on cit­i­zens’ rights.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has pledged that all of­fi­cers and sol­diers in­volved in spe­cial op­er­a­tions will re­ceive the re­quired train­ing, with po­lice re­tain­ing com­mand of joint op­er­a­tions and be­ing held ac­count­able for their ac­tions.

The Act was pro­claimed last Tues­day and man­dates spe­cialised train­ing for po­lice and sol­diers de­ployed to closed dis­tricts on hu­man rights, the use of force, com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment and con­flict de-es­ca­la­tion.

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions from Guardian Me­dia Lim­it­ed on Oc­to­ber 9, Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Man­ag­er Joanne Archie said the Po­lice Ser­vice will en­deav­our to en­sure that train­ing takes place.

“That train­ing is re­quired by the Act, and we will see that it is done,” Archie said in a state­ment.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Ju­nior Ben­jamin told Guardian Me­dia that spe­cif­ic op­er­a­tional pre­req­ui­sites must be met be­fore any ge­o­graph­ic zone is de­clared a closed area. Sec­tion 11 of the Act stip­u­lates that dis­trict clo­sures can on­ly be trig­gered when or­di­nary law en­force­ment mea­sures prove in­suf­fi­cient to ad­dress es­ca­lat­ing vi­o­lent crime, gang in­tim­i­da­tion, or il­le­gal weapons.

But what hap­pens if a dis­trict needs to be closed be­fore that train­ing is com­plete?

“Can­not say what now what will be de­cid­ed,” Archie said.

Asked about the time­frame for the train­ing, Archie said, “Train­ing is an on­go­ing process in the TTPS. It will be in­ten­si­fied in com­pli­ance with the Act. I can­not say how long the en­tire process will take.”

She al­so could not pro­vide an es­ti­mat­ed cost for the train­ing, and she did not re­spond to ques­tions on whether ex­ter­nal hu­man rights ex­perts would be en­gaged to train of­fi­cers.

Urg­ing the pub­lic to give the Act “a chance,” Ben­jamin em­pha­sised that the Po­lice Ser­vice is in no rush to de­clare any dis­trict closed.

“The thing is that there are cer­tain things that must be in place be­fore a dis­trict is con­sid­ered closed and so forth.

“And I am say­ing that we are seek­ing to en­sure that we ready our­selves to deal with this new bill and there is no great rush.”

Ad­dress­ing pub­lic anx­i­ety re­gard­ing po­ten­tial pow­er abus­es in closed dis­tricts, Ben­jamin as­sert­ed that the statute will not be wield­ed ar­bi­trar­i­ly against law-abid­ing cit­i­zens.

“The po­lice is not here to use this as a weapon. This is on­ly here in a sit­u­a­tion where, again, the con­di­tions, if you re­al­ly read the bill and know the Act, this has to be a sit­u­a­tion where, as the Act says, the nor­mal polic­ing ser­vices are un­able to deal with that sit­u­a­tion,” Ben­jamin said.

He sought to re­as­sure the pub­lic re­gard­ing the con­duct of of­fi­cers: “I want to as­sure the pub­lic that any pow­er that is giv­en to the po­lice ser­vice un­der this Act will be used, one, pro­fes­sion­al­ly, will be done law­ful­ly and pro­por­tion­ate­ly to en­sure a lev­el of trans­paren­cy, in­tegri­ty and ac­count­abil­i­ty.”

Asked whether a ded­i­cat­ed in­for­ma­tion­al cam­paign would be launched to guide res­i­dents, Ben­jamin in­di­cat­ed that de­ci­sions re­gard­ing pub­lic out­reach rest with Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro, stat­ing: “Well, I think it is im­por­tant for there to be knowl­edge. And I think it will be, at least, nev­er­the­less, that is a de­ci­sion to be made by the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice. And there­fore, I can­not say that it is still a bit pre­ma­ture at this stage to say what we are do­ing.”

Archie’s state­ment al­so ad­dressed pub­lic anx­i­ety over the con­duct of po­lice of­fi­cers.

“The Act tells us what we may do. How we do it is our choice, and it is a choice we will make care­ful­ly,” she said.

“The TTPS will use these pow­ers law­ful­ly and fair­ly, and we will ac­count for every ac­tion we take.”

Archie said the TTPS is pre­pared to go above and be­yond what is re­quired by the leg­is­la­tion to ac­count to the pub­lic.

“...the Act re­quires month­ly re­ports on spe­cial op­er­a­tions to the Gov­ern­ment and an an­nu­al re­port to Par­lia­ment. The TTPS will go fur­ther: We will give the pub­lic reg­u­lar up­dates on op­er­a­tions, in­clud­ing ar­rests, firearms and drugs seized, and com­plaints re­ceived,” she said.

The TTPS will al­so an­nounce each closed-area de­c­la­ra­tion, ex­plain­ing the rea­son for the clo­sure and co­op­er­at­ing with the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty in the event of com­plaints about of­fi­cers’ con­duct in closed dis­tricts.

Archie said cit­i­zens can utilise ex­ist­ing av­enues, in­clud­ing the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty and the TTPS Pro­fes­sion­al Stan­dards Bu­reau, to lodge their com­plaints.

Com­mu­ni­ty li­ai­son of­fi­cers will al­so be ap­point­ed to work in closed dis­tricts.

Archie al­so had a mes­sage for those who might find their lives dis­rupt­ed by their dis­trict’s clo­sure.

“To res­i­dents of the dis­tricts where op­er­a­tions take place: we know these op­er­a­tions may dis­rupt your dai­ly life, and we thank you for your pa­tience.

“You are not the tar­get. You are the peo­ple we are work­ing to pro­tect.”

She al­so out­lined what the Po­lice Ser­vice will do when a dis­trict is de­clared closed.

“When an area is closed, we will ex­plain why and for how long. Clo­sures will be kept as short as the op­er­a­tion al­lows. Res­i­dents will be told how to move about safe­ly and how to get a per­mit when one is need­ed.”

She said the Po­lice Ser­vice will lead these op­er­a­tions, with the De­fence Force as­sist­ing.

“Joint pro­to­cols and stan­dard op­er­at­ing pro­ce­dures set out who com­mands and who is ac­count­able.

“Any force used will be law­ful, nec­es­sary and pro­por­tion­ate. Every in­ci­dent will be re­port­ed and re­viewed,” she added.

Pitt: TTPS, as­so­ci­a­tion work­ing to­geth­er to ready cops

Po­lice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent ASP Ish­mael Pitt said the as­so­ci­a­tion is in con­stant com­mu­ni­ca­tion with the ex­ec­u­tive about train­ing for its mem­bers.

He said this com­mu­ni­ca­tion will be utilised to en­sure that of­fi­cers re­ceive the train­ing man­dat­ed un­der the Act.

“We are very con­fi­dent that the mech­a­nism of com­mu­ni­cat­ing through the or­gan­i­sa­tion will be ap­pro­pri­ate­ly man­aged to en­sure that the last joined of­fi­cer, and es­pe­cial­ly or specif­i­cal­ly those who have to func­tion with­in these zones, will be ap­pro­pri­ate­ly briefed, de­vel­oped, and trained in or­der to ad­here to the func­tions, and al­so that the ac­count­abil­i­ty fac­tor is just as present in terms of en­sur­ing that of­fi­cers ad­here to the law, best prac­tice, and gen­er­al rules of en­gage­ment,” Pitt said.

He said the as­so­ci­a­tion notes the Act’s stip­u­la­tion for body cam­eras for of­fi­cers in closed dis­tricts. Pitt said he be­lieves the TTPS ex­ec­u­tive is work­ing to ac­quire more body cams.

“From an as­so­ci­a­tion per­spec­tive, we must em­pha­sise that we will con­tin­u­ous­ly ad­vo­cate that our of­fi­cers are ful­ly equipped with the nec­es­sary per­son­al pro­tec­tive equip­ment when they are treat­ing with ar­eas that might be deemed ar­eas of spe­cial op­er­a­tions, and for that mat­ter, even in ar­eas that may not have that type of flag, but where it’s pos­si­ble that en­coun­ters may not al­ways be such that of­fi­cers can feel as­sured that their safe­ty will be pre­served,” Pitt said.

Asked about the $283 mil­lion over­time bill for 2026, Pitt said the pub­lic must un­der­stand the sac­ri­fices of­fi­cers make to keep the coun­try safe.

“We must un­der­stand that the ser­vice has been woe­ful­ly un­der­strength giv­en the in­creas­ing de­mands that the whole en­vi­ron­ment of polic­ing has brought. And for that rea­son, we have recog­nised that even in re­cent times, the Gov­ern­ment has au­tho­rised an in­crease in the sanc­tioned strength,” Pitt said.

He said be­fore that in­crease, of­fi­cers were car­ry­ing out dou­ble func­tions.

“And in that re­gard, may have sac­ri­ficed their own so­cial and fam­i­ly life, and al­so the op­por­tu­ni­ty to strike that work-life bal­ance.”

He said the pub­lic must look at the bill from a qual­i­ta­tive per­spec­tive, con­sid­er­ing what was done and what was need­ed for po­lice to do at that time.

How­ev­er, of­fi­cial fig­ures show that while po­lice over­time reached 3.03 mil­lion hours ($283.2 mil­lion) in the first eight months of 2026, re­port­ed of­fences si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly in­creased across sev­en out of nine ge­o­graph­ic di­vi­sions.

Cit­i­zens want more pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion on SO Act

On Char­lotte Street in Port-of-Spain, which falls un­der the Port-of-Spain South con­stituen­cy of Kei­th Scot­land, ven­dor Nar­ry Boodoo said his knowl­edge of the SO Act is lim­it­ed.

He be­lieves the Gov­ern­ment and Op­po­si­tion should come to­geth­er to ed­u­cate cit­i­zens.

“What I know is not a lot, I don’t (know) much about it and I think maybe the Gov­ern­ment should have some con­sul­ta­tion with the pub­lic to ed­u­cate the pub­lic as to ex­act­ly what it is, what is the pros and cons of it so the peo­ple know what they get­ting them­selves in­to,” Boodoo said.

“Every­body, who they vote for is who they will lis­ten to, so every­body should come to­geth­er and come up with ways to ed­u­cate their con­stituents about it.”

Ven­dor Mar­i­lyn Lee was al­so con­fused.

Lee, 72, said that while a closed dis­trict may be use­ful in fight­ing crime, she and oth­er ven­dors did not know whether they would be al­lowed to con­tin­ue ply­ing their trade in the city, in the event it is locked down.

Lee lives in East Dry Riv­er, an area where she said there are some­times lock­downs and she must stay in­side.

She did not say who locks down her com­mu­ni­ty.

“You must know to keep in­side,” Lee said.

She said she hopes that more in­for­ma­tion on the SO Act is made avail­able to the pub­lic be­fore dis­tricts are closed.

“We need to know what will hap­pen be­fore you go and buy a set of goods and you can’t sell. You have to pre­pare for all kind of thing to hap­pen.”

MP Scot­land had said he would con­sult with his con­stituents and they would take to the streets over the spe­cial op­er­a­tions.

Ven­dor Keron Daniel, who lives in Laven­tille, was al­so con­cerned about his liveli­hood.

“Yeah, that will be a prob­lem, be­cause it have peo­ple need food and that is what we deal­ing with. I does have to go mar­ket all 2, 3 o’clock and if I can’t come out, that is where my liveli­hood will stop,” Daniel said.

“They need to think about oth­er peo­ple liveli­hood be­cause not every­body get­ting up to go to work 8-4, 7-3, 9-5, it have peo­ple work­ing while peo­ple sleep­ing too and they need to re­spect these peo­ple’s jobs.”

Daniel said peo­ple on the ground were feel­ing the im­pacts of job loss­es, high­er fines and penal­ties and ris­ing food costs.

“I still have a bread to­day, but I ent sure about to­mor­row, it have peo­ple who don’t have for to­day be­cause they get their bread­line take off.”

In the event an area is de­clared closed un­der the SO Act, Daniel is urg­ing po­lice to treat cit­i­zens fair­ly.

“Be le­nient with peo­ple be­cause right now peo­ple go­ing through so much, you know what it is to get a tick­et for no in­sur­ance? Have to sell your ve­hi­cle to pay that tick­et, you have no ve­hi­cle again, that is what we on the ground go­ing through, and no­body ent help­ing we and no­body ent cry­ing for we, and we can’t cry for we self, so we just have to go with the flow and thank God every day for the lit­tle he pro­vid­ing we with,” he said.

Miles away in Cen­tral Trinidad, sin­gle moth­er Leslie-Ann, who works at a bar, was al­so con­cerned about her earn­ing po­ten­tial if the En­ter­prise com­mu­ni­ty she lives in is locked down.

Leslie-Ann said cov­er­ing rent and oth­er bills is al­ready dif­fi­cult.

“I am a sin­gle par­ent, it done hard to pay rent, pay bills, I have a daugh­ter sit­ting CXC, is more lessons, you have to pay more mon­ey,” Leslie-Ann said.

She said she gets paid by the hour and if En­ter­prise is locked down, her hours are like­ly to be cut.

“Then you will be work­ing not eight hours a day; you will be work­ing six and five hours a day, so how you pay­ing rent? How you mak­ing gro­ceries? How you send­ing your chil­dren to school? It not mak­ing sense; it done hard al­ready.”

Pen­sion­er Gol­ly Ramkissoon said that once the TTPS is lock­ing down the area, it may be a good thing.

Ramkissoon re­called be­ing the vic­tim of a home in­va­sion six years ago, when she and her chil­dren were at­tacked with cut­lass­es by ban­dits.

The ban­dits made off with some $70,000, which the fam­i­ly had earned from sell­ing pro­duce.

She is thank­ful that she and her chil­dren’s lives were spared.

“They chop we in we head...is a good thing they didn’t kill we,” Ramkissoon re­count­ed.

She said a short-term lock­down may help re­duce crime in En­ter­prise but said any long-term mea­sures would cause dis­tress for many res­i­dents.

“It will af­fect peo­ple go­ing to work... It might be good for me and worse for oth­er peo­ple,” she said.

Res­i­dent Roger Pas­call, 68, ad­mit­ted that he did not know much about the SO Act.

“But I know is laws that com­ing in­to ef­fect that takes away a lot of your rights,” Pas­call said.

He does not think a lock­down in En­ter­prise would prove ef­fec­tive, as he said many of the com­mu­ni­ty’s youths know the area “in­side out” and would find ways to car­ry on with any il­lic­it ac­tiv­i­ties even if the com­mu­ni­ty is locked down.

An­oth­er res­i­dent, Lich­field Spring, who claimed he is a for­mer drug deal­er, likened the SO Act to a re­turn to slav­ery.

Spring said he is a bee­keep­er and finds the re­quire­ment un­der the Act for per­mits to en­ter and ex­it closed dis­tricts “ridicu­lous.”

Say­ing he is not afraid of death, Spring said if En­ter­prise is locked down, the streets must rise up. “I telling you, no­body, on­ly Almighty God, could make me come back to slav­ery,” Spring said.

“I not do­ing noth­ing il­le­gal, so if you want to lock me up, you have to set me up.”

He said those in au­thor­i­ty need to turn to God, as he did when he stopped sell­ing drugs in 2000.