Head of To­ba­go Po­lice ACP Col­lis Hazel is warn­ing crim­i­nals not to come to To­ba­go and dis­rupt Car­ni­val ac­tiv­i­ties on the is­land be­tween Oc­to­ber 27 to 29.  

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing yes­ter­day at Shaw Park Cul­tur­al Com­plex, Hazel said all arms of the TTPS are on board to pro­vide a blan­ket of se­cu­ri­ty for rev­ellers with op­er­a­tion LAST—Land, Air and Sea To­geth­er.  

“J’Ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions we are all pre­pared for that event. We know Car­ni­val brings with it op­por­tu­ni­ty for rev­el­ry, but we know there are per­sons who are bent on do­ing crime and crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties who would want to ply their trade. Let me say to you loud and clear, this is not the place for rev­el­ry with crime,” Hazel said.

He said there would be ze­ro tol­er­ance against crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ties as there are more of­fi­cers on board to as­sist with Car­ni­val op­er­a­tions.  

“We in­vite you to this is­land to have a good time, take a good wine, take a good jam, but leave crime and crim­i­nal­i­ty where it does not be­long and To­ba­go is the place. We are say­ing we do not wel­come that.”

He said his of­fi­cers are com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of rev­ellers and spec­ta­tors.  

“I give you as­sur­ances as the Gold Com­man­der of this Car­ni­val that we are ready.”

He said prepa­ra­tions for To­ba­go’s Car­ni­val start­ed three months ago and at this point, To­ba­go of­fi­cers are com­fort­able with the strate­gic plans that will be op­er­a­tionalised.

Hazel said a ma­jor part of the plan was con­cep­tu­alised through a stake­hold­er ap­proach, which is part of the strate­gic plan for the TTPS.  

“Our plans will be suc­cess­ful and in or­der to en­sure this we al­ready did a table­top ex­er­cise look­ing at sce­nar­ios that may be like­ly to hap­pen and ex­plor­ing how we can lessen, mit­i­gate and re­duce such chal­lenges.”

The is­land re­port­ed a rel­a­tive­ly safe in­au­gur­al Car­ni­val in 2022.