Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro says the po­lice would be main­tain­ing max­i­mum na­tion­wide cov­er­age through­out the Car­ni­val sea­son and warned that due to the height­ened po­lice pres­ence, crim­i­nals would be dealt with by the po­lice.

But de­spite this warn­ing, 51 weapons were seized by of­fi­cers from rev­ellers com­ing to the cap­i­tal city to par­take in J’Ou­vert fes­tiv­i­ties.

Speak­ing with re­porters in South Quay on Car­ni­val Mon­day morn­ing, Gue­var­ro said po­lice from var­i­ous units and di­vi­sions were pre­pared to deal with any even­tu­al­i­ty.

On Sun­day, ACP North-West Garvin Hen­ry warned J’Ou­vert rev­ellers that the au­thor­i­ties have adopt­ed a “ze­ro tol­er­ance stance” to peo­ple found with weapons or glass bot­tles, not­ing that any­one found with these items dur­ing the Car­ni­val sea­son would be ar­rest­ed im­me­di­ate­ly.

This point was al­so re­in­forced by Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der, who re­mind­ed the pub­lic that they could ei­ther en­joy them­selves peace­ful­ly or face jail time for pos­ses­sion of weapons.

Gue­var­ro yes­ter­day again re­mind­ed the pub­lic that the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice was pre­pared and equipped to deal with trou­ble­mak­ers.

“The se­cu­ri­ty blan­ket is across the coun­try, and it would be re­miss of me not to re­in­force the point to tell per­sons to keep their weapons at home.

“If you come in­to the ar­eas where we are cel­e­brat­ing Car­ni­val (with weapons), the po­lice will deal with it, and we’ll deal with it de­ci­sive­ly.

“I’m al­so ask­ing peo­ple to kind­ly be aware of the amount of al­co­hol they con­sume. If you are drink­ing, please don’t dri­ve be­cause you will be spend­ing the week­end with us, and we will have ac­com­mo­da­tions ready for you.”

How­ev­er, of­fi­cers of the Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion and the Tran­sit Po­lice Unit (TPU) found and seized a to­tal of 51 weapons, in­clud­ing kitchen knives, pock­et knives, scis­sors, ice picks and oth­er sharp ob­jects that were left be­hind in maxi taxis en­ter­ing the city.

As part of an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions, of­fi­cers of the CID/CRO unit set up a check­point at City Gate, on South Quay, where in­com­ing J’Ou­vert rev­ellers were searched as they dis­em­barked maxi taxis.

Head of the Tran­sit Po­lice Unit (TPU) Supt Robert Joseph said var­i­ous check­points were es­tab­lished in col­lab­o­ra­tion with di­vi­sion­al po­lice units to as­sist in max­imis­ing cov­er­age and re­duc­ing the in­flux of crim­i­nals and the preva­lence of vi­o­lent crime.

Car­ni­val Gold Com­man­der and DCP Op­er­a­tions Suzette Mar­tin al­so not­ed that the po­lice were avail­able to as­sist the pub­lic and en­cour­aged rev­ellers and spec­ta­tors alike to make the most of the ex­pe­ri­ence.