Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land has brand­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill a “sprawl­ing as­sault” on cit­i­zens’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, warn­ing that it could trans­form Trinidad and To­ba­go in­to a “po­lice state” and sub­ject peo­ple liv­ing in crime-af­fect­ed com­mu­ni­ties to a less­er stan­dard of free­dom.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to clear­ly state its po­si­tion on body-worn cam­eras as Par­lia­ment de­bates leg­is­la­tion that would give po­lice ex­pand­ed search pow­ers dur­ing spe­cial op­er­a­tions.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der says the Gov­ern­ment will have to make do with the body cam­eras cur­rent­ly avail­able to the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), as con­cerns grow over whether there are enough func­tion­ing de­vices and whether their use will be manda­to­ry dur­ing op­er­a­tions un­der the pro­posed Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill.

For­mer prime min­is­ter Stu­art Young has ac­cused the Gov­ern­ment of us­ing the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill to sup­press con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, warn­ing that the leg­is­la­tion could turn Trinidad and To­ba­go in­to what he de­scribed as a “po­lice State.”