An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) wants to help young peo­ple write their sto­ries and change the tra­jec­to­ry of their lives to en­sure pos­i­tive out­comes.

Flip the Script is the next phase of the youth vi­o­lence pre­ven­tion and en­gage­ment ini­tia­tive, which seeks to ad­dress gang vi­o­lence and bul­ly­ing in all its forms, at 17 pri­or­i­ty schools.

Un­der­tak­en by the School Ori­ent­ed Polic­ing Unit (SOPU) of the Com­mu­ni­ty Ori­ent­ed Polic­ing Sec­tion (COPS), it builds on the 2012 “Be A Bud­dy, Not A Bul­ly” cam­paign.

Speak­ing dur­ing the launch on Sep­tem­ber 16 at the Po­lice Acad­e­my in St James, As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (ACP), Spe­cialised Sup­port, Sher­ma May­nard-Wil­son said, “Every young per­son has a sto­ry and as adults, we have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to en­sure that our chil­dren are giv­en the op­por­tu­ni­ty to shape those sto­ries in a pos­i­tive way.”

She ac­knowl­edged, “Un­for­tu­nate­ly, some of our young peo­ple are grow­ing up in cir­cum­stances where vi­o­lence, bul­ly­ing, gang in­flu­ence and oth­er so­cial pres­sures are be­com­ing part of their every­day ex­pe­ri­ences.”

She said these chal­lenges could fol­low chil­dren in­to the class­room and af­fect how they learn, in­ter­act with oth­ers and, ul­ti­mate­ly, the choic­es they make.

En­dors­ing Flip the Script, she said it was, “About reach­ing our young peo­ple ear­ly and giv­ing them the sup­port, guid­ance and op­por­tu­ni­ties they need to make bet­ter choic­es, and where nec­es­sary, to change the di­rec­tion in which they may be head­ing.”

May­nard-Wil­son al­so ap­pealed to young peo­ple: “If you are be­ing bul­lied, threat­ened or pres­sured, tell some­one. Speak to your teacher, your par­ent or guardian, your school of­fi­cer or an­oth­er adult whom you trust.”

Pro­vid­ing a project overview, Supt David Guel­mo de­clared, “Your sto­ry...un­writ­ten; the next chap­ter is yours.”

He said, “It is a po­si­tion this po­lice ser­vice has tak­en.”

“It says that no child in this coun­try is fin­ished—not the one who has al­ready been sus­pend­ed, not the one whose name al­ready ap­pears in a sta­tion di­ary, and not the one who was re­cruit­ed by peo­ple who saw his po­ten­tial be­fore we did.”

Guel­mo said the TTPS al­so had so­cial and le­gal oblig­a­tions to in­ter­vene in the lives of young peo­ple who are drift­ing and work with fam­i­lies un­der strain.

“Pre­ven­tion, done ear­ly, is cheap­er in every cur­ren­cy than en­force­ment done late. That is not sen­ti­ment. It is op­er­a­tional re­al­i­ty,” he stat­ed.

Flip the Script will be in­tro­duced dur­ing a six-month, mul­ti-plat­form school safe­ty and youth en­gage­ment cam­paign as a long-term re­ha­bil­i­ta­tive strat­e­gy.

Fol­low­ing its first de­ploy­ment in­to 51 schools on Sep­tem­ber 8, 2025, SOPU has been the front­line pres­ence in schools, record­ing in­ci­dents, men­tor­ing stu­dents and col­lab­o­rat­ing with Po­lice Youth Clubs.

Guel­mo said 272 of­fences were record­ed dur­ing the 2025/2026 aca­d­e­m­ic year, with fight­ing, va­p­ing and dis­or­der­ly con­duct lead­ing the list. He said this un­der­scored the ur­gency of ad­dress­ing gang cul­ture, bul­ly­ing, sub­stance abuse, fam­i­ly break­down and un­der­util­i­sa­tion of po­lice youth clubs.

A so­cial work­er will be as­signed to the cam­paign through­out.

“No po­lice ser­vice any­where in the world has ever ar­rest­ed its way out of youth vi­o­lence, and we will not be the first to try,” Guel­mo said.

ASP Wayne Guer­ra, di­rec­tor of the TTPS Band, out­lined a pro­posed Ju­nior Po­lice Band Pro­gramme, which he said could pro­vide pur­pose, dis­ci­pline and be­long­ing for young peo­ple.

“Mu­sic ed­u­ca­tion pro­vides ex­act­ly that, act­ing as a nat­ur­al shield against the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties that lead to ju­ve­nile delin­quen­cy,” he stat­ed.

Teacher Am­bas­sador Stephon Felmine said, “I have seen con­flict, bul­ly­ing, peer pres­sure, anger and fear en­ter the school com­pound, but I have al­so seen hu­mour, in­tel­li­gence, cre­ativ­i­ty and enor­mous po­ten­tial.”

“Our chil­dren are not prob­lems to be man­aged. They are young peo­ple to be un­der­stood, guid­ed and giv­en a fair chance.”

He said, “The sto­ry does not have to end the way it be­gan.”

Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er (DCP) Ju­nior Ben­jamin said the TTPS would tack­le the root caus­es of bul­ly­ing, anger, peer pres­sure, con­flict and vi­o­lence through pos­i­tive re­la­tion­ships, lead­ing by ex­am­ple, in­spir­ing pur­pose and pre­vent­ing vi­o­lence and crime through pos­i­tive part­ner­ship.

Lead­ing MEN­tor­ship Mat­ters, of­fi­cers will use Man Talk Cir­cles, the Trade Yard, the Man in the Stands, the Morn­ing Squad and the Han­dover to en­gage stu­dents.

He said, “The time has come for po­lice of­fi­cers to not just ar­rive when the fight starts.”

“We must see to put things in place to stop the fight from oc­cur­ring.”

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro thanked all stake­hold­ers for join­ing hands with the TTPS to bring back the na­tion by en­gag­ing the youth.