As Trinidad and To­ba­go ap­proach­es the first 72 hours of the State of Emer­gency, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro says the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is shift­ing from tra­di­tion­al en­force­ment to a more proac­tive strat­e­gy ground­ed in in­tel­li­gence and covert op­er­a­tions.

“This is not just polic­ing, it’s pre­ci­sion-guid­ed in­ter­ven­tion,” Gue­var­ro said in a mes­sage to the pub­lic to­day. He ex­plained that the TTPS is in­te­grat­ing strate­gic in­tel­li­gence with covert op­er­a­tions to dis­rupt crim­i­nal el­e­ments be­fore they can act.

How­ev­er, he warned that these ef­forts can on­ly suc­ceed through part­ner­ship with the pub­lic.

“I am urg­ing every cit­i­zen of Trinidad and To­ba­go to stand shoul­der-to-shoul­der with law en­force­ment dur­ing this crit­i­cal junc­ture,” Gue­var­ro said.

He al­so took aim at crit­ics of the SoE, call­ing them “naysay­ers and key­board war­riors” who lack cred­i­ble polic­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. “Most have nev­er ar­rest­ed a sus­pect, laid a charge, or faced the sober­ing ac­count­abil­i­ty of a court­room,” he said.

Gue­var­ro urged the pub­lic to re­ject spec­u­la­tion and in­stead sup­port the of­fi­cers work­ing to pro­tect the na­tion. “This mo­ment de­mands uni­ty, not dis­trac­tion,” he added. “When we sup­port our of­fi­cers and am­pli­fy the truth over spec­u­la­tion, we strength­en our com­mu­ni­ties and reaf­firm our col­lec­tive com­mit­ment to safe­ty and progress.”