Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­roo@cnc3.co.tt

In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor An­tho­ny Vieira is urg­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro to en­sure Trinidad and To­ba­go does not fol­low the path of the Unit­ed States, where ten­sions and a lack of trust, par­tic­u­lar­ly with ICE of­fi­cials, con­tin­ue to strain re­la­tions be­tween law en­force­ment and the pub­lic.

Amid con­tin­ued pub­lic de­bate over the po­lice-in­volved shoot­ing in St Au­gus­tine that claimed the life of Rishi Sama­roo, Gue­var­ro says the of­fi­cers in­volved will not be sus­pend­ed as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue. He urged the pub­lic not to jump to con­clu­sions, not­ing that a video cir­cu­lat­ing on­line, which ap­pears to show Sama­roo with his hands raised out­side his car be­fore the shoot­ing, does not tell the full sto­ry.

The Prime Min­is­ter has since said that while she will not com­ment on the in­ci­dent, which is un­der ac­tive in­ves­ti­ga­tion, she be­lieves body cam­eras should be worn by po­lice of­fi­cers.

And Sen­a­tor Vieira agrees. How­ev­er, he said the com­mis­sion­er must be cau­tious dur­ing this time with how he han­dles the sit­u­a­tion.

“I think the com­mis­sion­er has to be care­ful that he is not seen by the pop­u­la­tion as mir­ror­ing what we are see­ing go­ing on in the Unit­ed States with ICE in Min­neapo­lis, where peo­ple are see­ing one thing and the of­fi­cial nar­ra­tive is a com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent thing.”

He added, “We have to be very care­ful to main­tain trust.”

Asked if he be­lieves that is what is hap­pen­ing right now in Trinidad and To­ba­go, the sen­a­tor said, “I hope not.”

In Jan­u­ary 2026, Min­neapo­lis be­came the scene of a vi­o­lent stand­off be­tween lo­cal au­thor­i­ties and fed­er­al agents dur­ing Op­er­a­tion Metro Surge, a ma­jor De­part­ment of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty (DHS) im­mi­gra­tion en­force­ment push. Ten­sions es­ca­lat­ed af­ter the fa­tal shoot­ings of Renée Good and ICU nurse Alex Pret­ti, the lat­ter on Jan­u­ary 24, which was cap­tured on video and sparked wide­spread out­rage.

Yes­ter­day, Guardian Me­dia al­so sought com­ment from Gov­ern­ment Sen­a­tor Dar­rell Al­la­har on the Prime Min­is­ter’s po­si­tion on the use of body cam­eras. How­ev­er, he de­clined to re­spond, say­ing Guardian Me­dia does not re­port on his con­tri­bu­tions in the Sen­ate.

But Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor San­jiv Bood­hu be­lieves the CoP is mis­han­dling the in­ci­dent.

Bood­hu said, “I think the pub­lic would have felt a lot more com­fort­able know­ing that the of­fi­cers were put on sus­pen­sion. And bear­ing in mind that sus­pen­sion is not a con­clu­sion or a find­ing of guilt. It is mere­ly a step in a prop­er in­ves­ti­ga­tion.”

Mean­while, Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Faris Al-Rawi says there is no jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the rough­ly 2,000 body-worn cam­eras al­ready in cir­cu­la­tion with­in the TTPS not be­ing ac­tive­ly used. How­ev­er, he said the Prime Min­is­ter is say­ing one thing but do­ing some­thing else.

“What is in­cred­i­ble is that the leg­is­la­tion that is be­fore the par­lia­ment to­day, that is on zones, that does not pre­scribe the manda­to­ry use of body cam­eras. And there­fore, Mrs Per­sad-Bisses­sar says one thing and then is pro­mot­ing a law and beat­ing in­de­pen­dents to sup­port the law.”

A fear of heavy-hand­ed polic­ing was one of the con­cerns of the Op­po­si­tion dur­ing de­bate on the Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSO) leg­is­la­tion.

PNM Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne said the po­lice’s re­cent ac­tions were be­ing fu­elled by Gov­ern­ment po­si­tions, claim­ing that the pro­posed ZOSO law is aimed at mov­ing mil­i­tary el­e­ments in­to com­mu­ni­ties.

“That rhetoric is re­sult­ing in po­lice ac­tions that can­not be de­fend­ed. For the Prime Min­is­ter now to wake up and talk about body cam­eras is ab­surd, ridicu­lous and is an at­tempt to be­guile par­lia­men­tar­i­ans to give sup­port where sup­port is not due.”