An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has wel­comed the sub­stan­tial in­crease in fund­ing al­lo­cat­ed for fis­cal 2027 and says it is pre­pared to be­gin im­ple­ment­ing key projects as soon as the funds be­come avail­able.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) Ju­nior Ben­jamin said yes­ter­day that ro­bust over­sight mech­a­nisms are al­ready in place to en­sure the ad­di­tion­al fund­ing is spent as in­tend­ed and not mis­ap­pro­pri­at­ed.

Ac­knowl­edg­ing the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty that comes with the in­crease, Ben­jamin said, “To whom much is giv­en, much is re­quired.”

De­vel­op­ment fund­ing for the TTPS has risen from $70.9 mil­lion in fis­cal 2026 to $230.5 mil­lion in 2027.

Ac­cord­ing to the Draft Es­ti­mates of Re­cur­rent Ex­pen­di­ture, the Draft Es­ti­mates of De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme and the Pub­lic Sec­tor In­vest­ment Pro­gramme (PSIP), $186.1 mil­lion will be pro­vid­ed through the Con­sol­i­dat­ed Fund, while an ad­di­tion­al $44.4 mil­lion will come from the In­fra­struc­ture De­vel­op­ment Fund.

Ben­jamin said the TTPS was com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing the funds would be used ef­fec­tive­ly for the ben­e­fit of the or­gan­i­sa­tion and the wider pub­lic.

He not­ed that ac­count­abil­i­ty mea­sures have been strength­ened and pledged that the ser­vice would utilise the funds pro­fes­sion­al­ly and with clear ob­jec­tives.

“Our fo­cus is to en­sure that every dol­lar is used pur­pose­ful­ly and ef­fec­tive­ly,” he said, adding the fund­ing will sup­port in­creased po­lice vis­i­bil­i­ty, im­proved of­fi­cer train­ing and bet­ter-equipped per­son­nel.

Home In­va­sion Task Force ex­pan­sion

Ben­jamin high­light­ed the Home In­va­sion Task Force as one of the ma­jor ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the in­creased al­lo­ca­tion. Fund­ing for the unit has risen from $825,000 to $12 mil­lion.

He said the TTPS in­tends to es­tab­lish a ded­i­cat­ed fa­cil­i­ty for the unit.

“There are pro­vi­sions with­in this fis­cal pe­ri­od to en­sure these of­fi­cers have suit­able ac­com­mo­da­tion and fa­cil­i­ties so they can per­form their du­ties with­out un­nec­es­sary chal­lenges,” he said.

With home in­va­sion now specif­i­cal­ly crim­i­nalised un­der the law and in­ci­dents con­tin­u­ing to be re­port­ed, Ben­jamin said the Home In­va­sion Team (HIT) plays an im­por­tant role in pro­tect­ing cit­i­zens and com­bat­ing the crime.

Ben­jamin al­so con­firmed that sev­er­al po­lice sta­tions ear­marked un­der the PSIP will un­der­go re­pairs or re­con­struc­tion.

Se­nior TTPS of­fi­cials have al­ready as­sessed a num­ber of fa­cil­i­ties and de­ter­mined that some re­quire com­plete re­build­ing rather than re­fur­bish­ment.

“There is an ex­tra ef­fort to en­sure that the con­di­tions un­der which po­lice of­fi­cers op­er­ate are sig­nif­i­cant­ly im­proved,” he said.

“For too long, of­fi­cers have worked un­der very dif­fi­cult and, in some cas­es, un­san­i­tary con­di­tions. De­spite that, they have con­tin­ued con­tribut­ing to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment and crime re­duc­tion.”

Fund­ing for the Air Sup­port and Drone Unit has in­creased from $1.6 mil­lion to $5 mil­lion.

Ben­jamin said this is be­cause the TTPS recog­nis­es that crime-fight­ing ef­forts must ex­tend be­yond land-based op­er­a­tions.

This ap­proach has al­so re­sult­ed in in­creased fund­ing for the Coastal and River­ine Pa­trol Unit, whose al­lo­ca­tion has grown from $914,000 to $10 mil­lion.

Ben­jamin said the TTPS is seek­ing im­proved dock­ing fa­cil­i­ties, up­grad­ed ves­sels and a ded­i­cat­ed base for the unit.

“These are ar­eas where sig­nif­i­cant in­vest­ment is re­quired, in­clud­ing bet­ter boats and an ap­pro­pri­ate fa­cil­i­ty where op­er­a­tions can be based,” he ex­plained.

He said mean­ing­ful im­prove­ments in both units re­quire sub­stan­tial cap­i­tal in­vest­ment if the Po­lice Ser­vice is to main­tain pres­sure on crim­i­nal el­e­ments.

An­oth­er area re­ceiv­ing ad­di­tion­al sup­port is the po­lice ve­hi­cle fleet, with fund­ing in­creas­ing from $9.7 mil­lion to $20 mil­lion.

Ben­jamin said greater mo­bil­i­ty will sup­port ac­tive di­rec­tive pa­trols, in­crease po­lice vis­i­bil­i­ty in hotspot com­mu­ni­ties and im­prove re­sponse times.

“The more of­fi­cers we can get on the road and in­to hotspot ar­eas, the more ef­fec­tive­ly and quick­ly we can re­spond to in­ci­dents. This is what mod­ern, 21st-cen­tu­ry polic­ing re­quires,” he said.

Ben­jamin added that im­proved mo­bil­i­ty should en­hance op­er­a­tional ef­fec­tive­ness, in­crease ar­rests and help en­sure of­fend­ers are brought to jus­tice.

Task force to over­see spend­ing

Ben­jamin said trans­paren­cy and ac­count­abil­i­ty will guide the im­ple­men­ta­tion of all fund­ed projects.

He re­vealed that a ded­i­cat­ed team com­pris­ing of­fi­cials from the fi­nance and pro­cure­ment di­vi­sions has al­ready been es­tab­lished to over­see project ex­e­cu­tion once bud­getary re­leas­es are ap­proved.

“As soon as the re­leas­es are made, we have a task force in place to en­sure the Po­lice Ser­vice max­imis­es every op­por­tu­ni­ty to com­plete these projects,” he said.

He not­ed that a sim­i­lar ap­proach had proven suc­cess­ful dur­ing the pre­vi­ous fis­cal year.

Ad­dress­ing ques­tions about the on­go­ing ab­sorp­tion of Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP) of­fi­cers, Ben­jamin said the process is con­tin­u­ing but stressed that it can­not be the sole re­cruit­ment strat­e­gy.

“We can­not take a my­opic view of re­cruit­ment,” he said.

The TTPS, he dis­closed, aims to re­cruit at least 1,000 new of­fi­cers with­in the next year.

“It is go­ing to be a mas­sive re­cruit­ment dri­ve,” Ben­jamin said.

“Ab­sorp­tion is tak­ing place, but we must al­so go in­to com­mu­ni­ties and at­tract the very best can­di­dates to join the Po­lice Ser­vice.”

He said the ul­ti­mate goal is to re­cruit, train and de­ploy of­fi­cers who can en­hance ser­vice de­liv­ery and con­tribute mean­ing­ful­ly to na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.

“We want peo­ple who are ready to make a dif­fer­ence as we con­tin­ue im­prov­ing the qual­i­ty of ser­vice pro­vid­ed to the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”