SHARLENE RAMPERSAD
Senior Investigative Reporter
sharlene.rampersad@guardian.co.tt
On November 10, 2026, under Legal Notice No. 847 (Special Operations (Closed Area) Order, 2026), President Christine Kangaloo officially designated the Maloney Buildings Housing Development within Policing District 2 as the nation's first "closed area," triggering a 9 pm to 5 am curfew under Legal Notice No. 848.
On November 12, a Guardian Media team, reporter Sharlene Rampersad, photographer Faith Ayoung, and cameraman Joel Phillips, visited Maloney and spent the night under the curfew restrictions.
The following is their account.
As darkness fell on November 12, those hoping to enter Maloney from the Churchill Roosevelt Highway had to join a line to be screened by heavily armed police officers.
The officers took less than a minute with most vehicles and their occupants.
When our vehicle pulled up to the checkpoint at 8.11 pm, a female officer asked, “Are you residents? What is your address?”
“We’re visiting a resident,” we told her.
“Ok, remember a curfew goes into effect by 9 pm, so you have to be back out before then,” she instructed, before waving us on.
There was no additional request for information or identification. We were in an unmarked vehicle and no member of the team identified themself as a journalist.
Our photographer, who was in a separate vehicle, was asked the same question and told a male officer she was spending the night at a relative’s home.
“I don’t know if I can allow you to do that,” he responded.
After checking with a senior officer, he waved her on, warning her driver to leave the area by 9 pm before the curfew went into effect.
Metres away from the checkpoint, the proprietress of Bunkie’s Soul Food was busy filling orders for two customers as her young children waited nearby.
“I am not allowing this thing to affect me; I will come out and do my thing because this thing looking like a political thing because, as far as I understand, they were stopping maxis from picking (up) schoolchildren, from picking up people going to work,” she said.
She said the community knows her as “Bunkie,” and she lives in Building Six with her family.
Drawing attention to a small portion of fries and chicken wings, Bunkie said she was forced to cook smaller portions, so her ingredients would not be wasted when the curfew goes into effect.
“I on the front here about 12 years now; this is how I make my livelihood. Now I have to shut down 9 o’clock, usually, between the hours of 9 and 11 is when I make my money because people does come out late.”
As she spoke, a woman approached and asked about the price of a meal.
“I buy my food already inno and went in the (Maloney Police) station for a (curfew) pass and forget my box of food there,” she lamented.
She was dressed in a nurse’s uniform and said she needs a pass as she often works different shifts.
She then ordered a meal, and Bunkie got busy preparing it.
Our team then headed to Spoon Bill Terrace, a short distance away, where we were set to spend the night.
The streets were busy with both vehicular and pedestrian traffic as 9 pm approached, and officers in marked police vehicles with flashing lights drove through the community.
At 8.58 pm, several people were seen hurrying down the street.
“I can’t talk to you now, I have to reach inside quick,” one woman with a small child in tow told us.
But before she could walk more than ten feet, a police car came around the corner and people on the street began scampering inside their homes.
Our team got off the street and stood on the porch of the house we were staying in, looking on as the officers questioned the woman and several of their colleagues in another vehicle spoke to a man, who appeared to be intoxicated.
“I doh want no drop with allyuh,” he shouted, as he walked away from the vehicle.
The woman and her child, though they accepted an offer for a ride, getting into the police vehicle.
As both police vehicles drove off, the street stood silent except for the mutterings of the man walking himself home.
As he walked out of sight, the street was quiet for several minutes until we spotted another person, crouched low and running along the front of the homes on the street. As he came into sight, the young man ducked behind trees as two young women beckoned him from a house on the other end of the street. He ran to the front gate of a home almost at the end of the street, disappearing into the yard as the young women waited. Several minutes later, he emerged again and darted across the street as blue lights from a nearby static patrol, guarding the entrance to the community from the Priority Bus Route, continued to flash.
For several hours, the youngster sat in front of the doorway, chatting with the neighbour whose home he had stopped at.
Their low voices were the only sound on the street for some time. As the night wore on, police patrols, without flashing lights, were seen at least twice every hour. While there were some residents outside in their yards, or like the youngster, sitting outside their doors, the officers seemed to pay them no mind.
Shortly before midnight, we saw a man calmly making his way down the street.
When we asked whether he had a curfew pass, he said, “I just have a letter from work if they stop me.”
The street remained quiet except for the twice-hourly patrols until 3.39 am, when a garbage truck and several sanitation workers came into view.
One resident hurried to her fence, dropping a bag of garbage just in time for the worker to collect.
“Police asking a set of questions,” the worker shouted to us before continuing his job.
At 3.55 am, a man was seen leaving one of the houses on foot.
At 4.36 am, a young woman, who identified herself only as “Cee Cee”, came walking down the street.
She said she was returning home after a shift at a casino and admitted she had no curfew pass.
“I trying to organise that, I not scared just annoyed because I went two times earlier (on Thursday) to the police station, one time they say the time for permit close off and then they say I have to get a letter from my work saying I working shift, so it is very annoying,” she said.
Cee Cee said she had no issue with police operations in the area.
“But my thing is, they know who the gangsters are; they could just go to them and stop inconveniencing people who just trying to go to work.”
Morning after curfew
At 4.59 am, a police patrol returned to the street, driving slowly, its lights flashing across closed doors.
We left Spoon Bill Terrace minutes later and caught up with 73-year-old Neil Mayers, who was starting his daily exercise at the Clayton Ince Recreation Ground.
Mayers said he usually starts his routine at 3 am.
“I was just telling my wife, by this time I back home already...at this age, you have to exercise and keep yourself good,” Mayers said.
“Due to this (lockdown), I have to be careful how I coming out here, I too old for police to harass me and treat me like a lil’ boy,” he added.
He does not believe the lockdown is effective or makes sense.
“They have nothing organised, a partner of mine went for a pass, and they tell him now he have to wait at 8 o’clock to get a pass.”
Mayers said he did not see any patrols throughout the night.
“Not on my street, I (was) up and you could hear a pin drop,” he said.
He hopes the lockdown ends soon.
“What they should have done is when the shooting take place by Building 12 or whatever, the police come out in their numbers and cordon that place; you don’t have to lockdown everybody.”
A short distance away on Jacana Avenue, Theresa was making her way to the Churchill Roosevelt Highway, hoping to secure transportation to work.
She has also had to request to leave work half an hour earlier daily, to ensure she makes it home before the curfew.
She did not know whether her salary would be cut but said the lockdown does not affect her in any other way.
As she hurried off, one vehicle with several police officers stood looking on at the entrance to the community. They did not interact with anyone or stop a vehicle entering or exiting the community while our team was present.
Allison Goodridge, a security officer stationed in Maloney, said she had to leave her La Horquetta home earlier to get to work.
She usually picks up duty at 6 am.
“We are being questioned also... it’s going to be harsh (if the lockdown continues), we have transport that usually drops us to the location, now we have to stop off by the highway to get in here,” Goodridge said.
Resident Kristian was on his way to work at 6.06 am. He said that while he does not think the lockdown is necessary, it has not affected him in any way.
“I does be inside all the time... this is the time I does leave for work and I coming back in before the time (that curfew starts).”
Max the Pie Man told us he was happy with the lockdown to some extent.
“I getting to sleep good cause they (neighbours) does be by my window playing music and all kinda thing, so is a good,” he said.
He said his business remains unaffected as well.
Resident Richard Joseph also said he is unaffected by the curfew.
“I work from 8-4, and I am in before dark,” Joseph said.
But he does not support the lockdown.
“I think you should have a crime plan to extract the elements. I am not seeing this extracting the elements; I am seeing it restricting the community.”
Joseph believes once the lockdown is lifted, the community will go back to “normal.”
Our team left the community around 6.30 am, driving past the officers stationed at the entrance without being stopped or asked any questions.
