More than four years af­ter the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion was re­pur­posed for the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) Child Pro­tec­tion Unit, res­i­dents and busi­ness own­ers are blam­ing the clo­sure of the sta­tion for the up­surge in crime.

Sev­er­al res­i­dents were too afraid to speak on cam­era yes­ter­day but voiced com­plaints about crim­i­nals roam­ing their neigh­bour­hoods, cre­at­ing fear and anx­i­ety.

Res­i­dents said with the Gran Cou­va Po­lice Sta­tion lo­cat­ed miles away and poor road con­di­tions slow­ing the re­sponse times of of­fi­cers, they are left vul­ner­a­ble.

They have called for the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion to be re­vert­ed to serve com­mu­ni­ties with­in its ju­ris­dic­tion.

Com­plain­ing about a rise in rob­beries and home in­va­sions in re­cent months, res­i­dents said on Wednes­day, a maxi-taxi dri­ver and his wife were ac­cost­ed by four gun­men at their Tabaquite home and robbed.

Rad­i­ca Ma­haraj, who owns a mi­ni-mart in the com­mu­ni­ty, said her busi­ness had been robbed 11 times, with her hus­band be­ing shot dur­ing an in­ci­dent in 2015. Fear­ful of be­ing tar­get­ed again, she said she was scared to be at home or her busi­ness.

“Since the po­lice sta­tion closed down, it has be­come hard­er for the po­lice to come from Gran Cou­va, es­pe­cial­ly with the state of the roads. When the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion was op­er­a­tional, we al­ways had sev­er­al pa­trols, and when you called, they would ar­rive in a few min­utes.”

Ma­haraj al­so re­count­ed an in­ci­dent last week when res­i­dents called the po­lice af­ter spot­ting a man walk­ing through the neigh­bour­hood, tak­ing pho­tos of prop­er­ties. She men­tioned an­oth­er in­ci­dent when she caught a man on her premis­es.

An­oth­er busi­ness own­er who runs a bar lament­ed, “It’s fright­en­ing.” De­spite the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency, he said po­lice pa­trols in the com­mu­ni­ty are in­suf­fi­cient. Fear­ing an­oth­er rob­bery, he ex­plained that he had been clos­ing his busi­ness ear­li­er. “It is hurt­ing busi­ness­peo­ple,” he added.

Last Ju­ly, res­i­dents staged a protest call­ing for the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion to be re­opened af­ter the mur­der of pen­sion­er Lutch­miper­sad Sookram.

Lo­cal gov­ern­ment rep­re­sen­ta­tive and res­i­dent, Sharen Badal-Ahyew, yes­ter­day re­called that dur­ing the last po­lice town meet­ing in 2024, a se­nior po­lice of­fi­cer had promised that by No­vem­ber of that year, the Bras­so sta­tion would be open.

“We are call­ing now on the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty to give us an­swers, or else we will have to take all nec­es­sary ac­tions be­cause it is over­bear­ing. We are very vul­ner­a­ble in com­mu­ni­ties such as Bras­so, Tabaquite, Flana­gin Town, Mam­moral, and it’s a large catch­ment area for the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion dis­trict.”

In re­sponse, Snr Supt Ian Cathy said he was told the Bras­so Po­lice Sta­tion would be re­opened in three to four weeks. He said, how­ev­er, some mi­nor works are still pend­ing. In the mean­time, Cathy as­sured res­i­dents that ef­forts to ad­dress their con­cerns will be in­ten­si­fied.