Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

As Par­lia­ment de­bates leg­is­la­tion that would give law en­force­ment en­hanced pow­ers in des­ig­nat­ed “Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions”, the Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty (PCA) has reaf­firmed that it will op­er­ate strict­ly in ac­cor­dance with its statu­to­ry man­date.

PCA Di­rec­tor David West made it clear to Guardian Me­dia that the au­thor­i­ty does not com­ment on mat­ters of par­lia­men­tary de­bate.

How­ev­er, he said, “Should any in­ci­dent arise in­volv­ing po­lice of­fi­cers that falls with­in the purview of the au­thor­i­ty, the PCA will act strict­ly in ac­cor­dance with its statu­to­ry func­tions and pow­ers and will dis­charge its re­spon­si­bil­i­ties in­de­pen­dent­ly, im­par­tial­ly, and in keep­ing with the law.”

The PCA is a civil­ian-led body with the pri­ma­ry role to in­ves­ti­gate and over­see com­plaints against mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), the Spe­cial Re­serve Po­lice (SRP), and the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice.

Un­der the Law Re­form (Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions) (Spe­cial Se­cu­ri­ty and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment Mea­sures) Bill, 2026, which is cur­rent­ly be­fore the Sen­ate, the po­lice and mil­i­tary (called a Joint Force) re­ceive sev­er­al ex­pand­ed pow­ers with­in a des­ig­nat­ed “zone.”

The most sig­nif­i­cant ex­pan­sion of pow­er is the au­thor­i­ty to con­duct search­es with­out a war­rant. The Joint Com­mand can al­so re­strict move­ment with­in spe­cif­ic parts of the zone.

In the Sen­ate on Wednes­day, De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge said the in­fringe­ment of these rights is a “small price to pay” if it leads to crime sup­pres­sion.

But In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor Josh Dray­ton said in Ja­maica, where a sim­i­lar law is in ef­fect, it led to an in­crease in killings at the hands of the po­lice.

“Fa­tal po­lice shoot­ings rose sharply to 311 in 2025, the high­est num­ber since the Tivoli in­cur­sion in 2010,” Dray­ton said. “So that this sug­gests that re­duc­tions in mur­der may part­ly co­in­cide with more ag­gres­sive polic­ing.”

Ac­cord­ing to the PCA, there were 68 vic­tims of fa­tal po­lice killings in 2025 and four so far in 2026.

Dur­ing de­bate on the ZOSO leg­is­la­tion, Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Vish­nu Dhan­paul called for the po­lice of­fi­cers as­signed to the zones to wear “body cams” for trans­paren­cy.

Guardian Me­dia asked the PCA di­rec­tor if he too is of that be­lief. How­ev­er, West again stressed that the PCA will not weigh in on spe­cif­ic leg­is­la­tion, but he did un­der­score the gen­er­al po­si­tion of the au­thor­i­ty as it per­tains to body-worn cam­eras.

West said, “The Po­lice Com­plaints Au­thor­i­ty has con­sis­tent­ly ad­vo­cat­ed for the use of body-worn cam­eras as a vi­tal tool in ac­count­abil­i­ty in polic­ing. The au­thor­i­ty recog­nis­es their val­ue in pro­mot­ing trans­paren­cy, sup­port­ing ob­jec­tive ev­i­dence gath­er­ing, and en­hanc­ing pub­lic con­fi­dence, while al­so of­fer­ing pro­tec­tion to both mem­bers of the pub­lic and po­lice of­fi­cers.”

De­bate re­sumes to­day on the ZOSO leg­is­la­tion. It re­quires a spe­cial ma­jor­i­ty for pas­sage.