JENSEN LA VENDE

Se­nior Re­porter

jensen.lavende@guardian.co.tt

To­day marks one year since Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (CoP) Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro be­gan his role as head of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS).

Gue­var­ro was ap­point­ed as CoP on June 17, with his role tak­ing ef­fect from June 18, 2025. The ap­point­ment fol­lowed the com­ple­tion of a re­cruit­ment and se­lec­tion process con­duct­ed by the Po­lice Ser­vice Com­mis­sion (PSC) that be­gan in April 2024.

The PSC gave the top cop a 12-month pro­ba­tion pe­ri­od, at the end of which he will be as­sessed, and once ap­proved, will be con­firmed un­til his re­tire­ment at age 60. The CoP is now 50.

When he as­sumed the role, se­ri­ous crime was al­ready on a down­ward trend, with mur­ders at 180 as of June 15, 2025.

He was ap­point­ed months af­ter his pre­de­ces­sor, Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher, was ar­rest­ed and sub­se­quent­ly re­leased with­out charge af­ter the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions found there was in­suf­fi­cient ev­i­dence to sup­port any crim­i­nal charge against her.

Hare­wood-Christo­pher was ar­rest­ed in Jan­u­ary 2025 as part of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the im­por­ta­tion of two sniper ri­fles for the Strate­gic Ser­vices Agency (SSA). In­ves­ti­ga­tors were ex­am­in­ing her role in ap­prov­ing the firearm im­port per­mit for the weapons.

Speak­ing at the first-ever pub­lic hand­ing-over cer­e­mo­ny back then, af­ter tak­ing the reins from act­ing po­lice com­mis­sion­er DCP Ju­nior Ben­jamin, Gue­var­ro thanked Ben­jamin for lead­ing the po­lice ser­vice through what he said was its “dark­est hour.”

A month af­ter as­sum­ing of­fice, the top cop ad­vised the Gov­ern­ment to call a State of Emer­gency (SoE) to ad­dress what he said was cred­i­ble in­for­ma­tion of a crime syn­di­cate in­volv­ing prison of­fi­cers and oth­er arms of na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, who were plan­ning co­or­di­nat­ed at­tacks on Gov­ern­ment, ju­di­cial and law en­force­ment of­fi­cials. This led to in­mates at the Max­i­mum Se­cu­ri­ty Prison in Arou­ca be­ing re­lo­cat­ed to Teteron Bar­racks and Staubles Bay, which were lat­er legal­ly con­vert­ed to pris­ons.

Since then, the coun­try has been in a State of Emer­gency, with less than a month break in be­tween.

Af­ter 100 days in of­fice, he said yes­ter­day that he was not go­ing to grade him­self, as that is up to his em­ploy­ers, which he said is the pub­lic.

“The TTPS is no longer re­act­ing to crime. We are out­pac­ing it at this time,” he said as he com­mem­o­rat­ed his first 100 days in of­fice at the end of the 12th Road Safe­ty Awards cer­e­mo­ny at the Min­istry of Trans­port and Avi­a­tion in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day.

Gue­var­ro said one of the most dif­fi­cult mo­ments in his first year in of­fice was be­ing mis­quot­ed by Guardian Me­dia.

The in­ci­dent he re­ferred to stemmed from re­marks he made in De­cem­ber last year at an event on the Bri­an Lara Prom­e­nade, in re­la­tion to a drug seizure in the Ca­roni Swamp, where of­fi­cers made no ar­rests.

“Why would I leave my of­fi­cers to do sur­veil­lance in the bush for two and three nights to get mos­qui­to bite and dengue when the sim­plest thing would be to just take the mar­i­jua­na and re­move it and lat­er de­stroy it be­cause it is not in the hands of those per­sons who would take it to mon­e­tise it and then vic­timise you, the pub­lic,” he said then.

The CoP came un­der heavy crit­i­cism fol­low­ing his ex­pla­na­tion of the po­lice op­er­a­tion.

Gue­var­ro told those in at­ten­dance yes­ter­day that he was hum­bled to speak at the event while cel­e­brat­ing his first year in of­fice.

He said the in­crease in fines and oth­er de­ter­rents im­ple­ment­ed by the Gov­ern­ment had con­tributed to a re­duc­tion in road deaths and oth­er traf­fic of­fences.

He al­so re­fut­ed claims that the po­lice ser­vice was just con­cerned with is­su­ing tick­ets, re­it­er­at­ing that there were few­er tick­ets is­sued this year com­pared to last year.

“We have less road traf­fic ac­ci­dents and less fa­tal RTAs than last year, so peo­ple are be­gin­ning to get the mes­sage. So, per­haps, those in­creased fines and the use of tech­nol­o­gy are be­gin­ning to take root in the mind­set and cul­ture of Trinidad and To­ba­go,” he said.

Dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing lat­er on, head of the North-East­ern Di­vi­sion Snr Supt Claire Guy-Al­leyne al­so re­port­ed a 38 per cent re­duc­tion in crime de­spite an in­crease in mur­ders in the di­vi­sion.

She said last year there were 20 mur­ders while there were 24 mur­ders to date. She said there was a 54 per cent re­duc­tion in wound­ings and shoot­ings, 12 kid­nap­pings last year and three this year. For break-ins, there was a 47 per cent de­crease when com­pared to the pre­vi­ous pe­ri­od and lar­ce­ny of ve­hi­cles, an of­fence that she said plagued the di­vi­sion, had seen a 52 per cent de­crease from 54 last year to 26 so far this year.

Asked if these achieve­ments were made thanks to SoE, Guy-Al­leyne said no. She said there was a strate­gic and op­er­a­tional plan im­ple­ment­ed by the di­vi­sion. While the SoE as­sist­ed the po­lice, she said the rolling out of those plans ac­counts for the re­duc­tion.

“The SoE was just an ad­di­tion to the plans that we have with­in the or­gan­i­sa­tion. We have the strate­gic plan and the op­er­a­tional plan (that led to the re­duc­tion). And with our polic­ing tac­tics and in­tel­li­gence-led polic­ing, work­ing along with the com­mu­ni­ties and stake­hold­ers as well,” she said.

Last week, West­ern Di­vi­sion head, Snr Supt Sylvester Williams, said there was a 16 per cent re­duc­tion in crimes in his di­vi­sion, al­though kid­nap­pings, break-ins and fraud had in­creased.