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Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Dickson condemns attacks on officers:

It is time for this to stop

by

Sascha Wilson
636 days ago
20231012
TTPS Social and Welfare Association president Gideon Dickson

TTPS Social and Welfare Association president Gideon Dickson

ABRAHAM DIAZ

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

On the heels of gun at­tacks on a prison of­fi­cer and a po­lice of­fi­cer, Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice So­cial and Wel­fare As­so­ci­a­tion head ASP Gideon Dick­son yes­ter­day called on of­fi­cers to be on “red alert” and to keep their guards up at all times.

Con­demn­ing the at­tacks, Dick­son said, “Straight out, the as­so­ci­a­tion con­demns the at­tack made by those per­sons who have crim­i­nal in­tent on any mem­ber of the pub­lic and more so on any law en­force­ment of­fi­cial. What oc­curred this morn­ing in Barataria, we will not ac­cept. What oc­curred over the week­end, where an of­fi­cer’s home was shot at, we will not ac­cept.

“What is oc­cur­ring in Trinidad and To­ba­go present­ly in terms of the ac­tiv­i­ties of those with crim­i­nal in­tent to take the lives and utilise firearms to in­flict harm and fear on our law-abid­ing cit­i­zens, we will not ac­cept. It is time for this to stop. It is time for this to come to an end.”

Dick­son’s con­dem­na­tion and warn­ing came hours af­ter the dri­ver of the Deputy Prison Com­mis­sion­er was shot and in­jured while in his car out­side the se­nior of­fi­cer’s Barataria home. The sus­pects came out of a car and opened fire at the dri­ver, who is al­so a prison of­fi­cer, hit­ting him twice on his arm.

Last Sun­day, the home of a 36-year-old po­lice con­sta­ble at Sun­rees Road, Pe­nal, was shot at around 8.30 pm. The of­fi­cer was at a rel­a­tive’s home when he heard the ex­plo­sions and saw bright lights in the bush­es be­hind the house.

Af­ter the shoot­ing end­ed, he checked and found five spent 9 mm shells scat­tered on the floor of his garage and bul­let holes in a wood­en door of his house. The of­fi­cer is as­signed to the South West­ern Di­vi­sion. Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed his house yes­ter­day, but no one ap­peared to be home. Of­fi­cers from the Pe­nal Po­lice Sta­tion are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.

Dick­son said be­cause of these in­ci­dents, he and his as­so­ci­a­tion stand in sol­i­dar­i­ty with po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tors in bring­ing the per­pe­tra­tors to jus­tice.

“And we will spare no course in sup­port­ing our of­fi­cers as they en­gage all those with crim­i­nal in­tent,” Dick­son said.

He urged all of­fi­cers in the pro­tec­tive ser­vices to stay on red alert and to take noth­ing for grant­ed. Dick­son called on them to be vig­i­lant at all times.

“En­sure your life, your liveli­hood and your fam­i­ly life are, in fact, pro­tect­ed,” he added.


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