Ma­jor busi­ness groups and shop­pers are com­mend­ing the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) for launch­ing Op­er­a­tion Fes­tive Shield, a high-vis­i­bil­i­ty crime plan that has seen an im­me­di­ate in­crease in pa­trols ahead of Christ­mas and Car­ni­val 2026.

The plan, which has al­ready trans­formed the at­mos­phere in the cap­i­tal, is de­signed to bol­ster pub­lic safe­ty dur­ing the busy Christ­mas shop­ping sea­son and the up­com­ing Car­ni­val 2026 cel­e­bra­tions.

The TTPS rolled out the ini­tia­tive in No­vem­ber 2025, em­pha­sis­ing high-vis­i­bil­i­ty polic­ing, in­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tions, traf­fic and pub­lic or­der man­age­ment and stake­hold­er part­ner­ships with rapid re­sponse ca­pa­bil­i­ty.

Since its roll­out, shop­pers who fre­quent Port-of-Spain have re­port­ed a marked in­crease in po­lice pres­ence, with of­fi­cers de­ployed on both mo­bile and foot pa­trols through­out the city.

Busi­ness cham­bers across the coun­try al­so wel­comed the im­me­di­ate im­pact of the plan, not­ing that it has helped re­store con­fi­dence among con­sumers and mer­chants alike.

This re­newed op­ti­mism, how­ev­er, has al­so sparked broad­er con­ver­sa­tions about the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of such ini­tia­tives.

They are al­so urg­ing that such mea­sures not be con­fined to sea­son­al op­er­a­tions and are press­ing for more ju­di­cious traf­fic en­force­ment, par­tic­u­lar­ly re­gard­ing park­ing tick­ets, which they ar­gue are damp­en­ing the fes­tive eco­nom­ic boost.

The Greater Tu­na­puna Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce (GT­CIC) has echoed this sen­ti­ment, while al­so prais­ing the strong on-foot and ve­hic­u­lar pres­ence that has re­as­sured the pub­lic.

The cham­ber’s recog­ni­tion un­der­scores how vis­i­ble polic­ing could di­rect­ly in­flu­ence com­mu­ni­ty con­fi­dence.

Pres­i­dent Ra­mon Gre­go­rio re­in­forced this point, not­ing that of­fi­cers have been strate­gi­cal­ly po­si­tioned at key points with height­ened ve­hic­u­lar pa­trols along­side height­ened foot pa­trols.

“We recog­nise and ap­pre­ci­ate the work be­ing done by the TTPS un­der chal­leng­ing con­di­tions,” Gre­go­rio said, adding, “Con­sis­ten­cy, vis­i­bil­i­ty and co­or­di­na­tion are re­quired to main­tain con­fi­dence in Tu­na­puna as a safe place to shop and con­duct busi­ness dur­ing the Christ­mas sea­son as well as af­ter­wards.”

His re­marks con­nect the im­me­di­ate suc­cess of the ini­tia­tive with the long-term need for sus­tain­able polic­ing.

Nev­er­the­less, he ac­knowl­edged that crime re­mains a ma­jor con­cern for both shop­pers and busi­ness­es as busi­nes­sown­ers have in­di­cat­ed that fear of in­ci­dents has in­flu­enced op­er­a­tional de­ci­sions over the past year, show­ing that polic­ing strate­gies must adapt to evolv­ing re­al­i­ties.

To ad­dress these con­cerns, Gre­go­rio be­lieves a stronger po­lice pres­ence dur­ing late-evening hours, quick­er re­sponse mech­a­nisms, and im­proved co­or­di­na­tion with busi­ness groups, pri­vate se­cu­ri­ty and lo­cal stake­hold­ers should form the cor­ner­stone of a safe Tu­na­puna. This vi­sion ties to­geth­er the cham­ber’s call for safe­ty with its eco­nom­ic as­pi­ra­tions.

“Christ­mas should be a time of eco­nom­ic op­por­tu­ni­ty, not anx­i­ety,” Gre­go­rio said adding, “Our busi­ness­es want to open lat­er, our shop­pers want to feel safe, and our com­mu­ni­ties de­serve peace of mind. Pub­lic safe­ty is not just a polic­ing is­sue—it is an eco­nom­ic and so­cial pri­or­i­ty.”

Build­ing on this per­spec­tive, the Ch­agua­nas Cham­ber of Com­merce, led by Pres­i­dent Bal­dath Ma­haraj, al­so ex­pressed strong sat­is­fac­tion with the cur­rent mea­sures.

Ma­haraj con­firmed that the in­creased pa­trols aligned with dis­cus­sions held with May­or Faaiq Mo­hammed and Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Rudolph Bhag­wan­deen.

This col­lab­o­ra­tion, along with oth­er sup­port sys­tems, has con­tributed pos­i­tive­ly to the over­all sense of safe­ty for shop­pers and busi­ness­men.

“Busi­ness­es are open­ing late in­to the night with no re­ports of crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty so far,” Ma­haraj re­port­ed, cred­it­ing the vis­i­bil­i­ty of of­fi­cers for the low crime trend.

At the same time, Ma­haraj ac­knowl­edged the chal­lenges faced by the Po­lice Ser­vice, not­ing that it is op­er­at­ing un­der con­di­tions that de­mand in­creased man­pow­er, par­tic­u­lar­ly dur­ing this sea­son when pub­lic ac­tiv­i­ty, in­clud­ing shop­ping, is at its high­est.

De­spite these pres­sures, he main­tained that of­fi­cers are clear­ly mak­ing an ef­fort to main­tain or­der and pro­vide re­as­sur­ance to the pub­lic, and their com­mit­ment dur­ing this pe­ri­od should be com­mend­ed.

Nev­er­the­less, while these ef­forts are en­cour­ag­ing, Ma­haraj al­so echoed that con­tin­ued vis­i­bil­i­ty would be crit­i­cal as the sea­son pro­gress­es.

He stressed that sus­tained pa­trols, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing peak shop­ping hours and in high-traf­fic ar­eas, would help re­in­force pub­lic con­fi­dence.

In ad­di­tion, on­go­ing co­or­di­na­tion with mu­nic­i­pal po­lice, traf­fic war­dens and oth­er stake­hold­ers has fur­ther en­hanced the ef­fec­tive­ness of these mea­sures, im­prov­ing the over­all shop­ping ex­pe­ri­ence for both busi­ness­es and con­sumers.

Adding to these voic­es, Pres­i­dent of the Greater San Fer­nan­do Area Cham­ber of Com­merce Ki­ran Singh high­light­ed sim­i­lar progress where dis­cus­sions with the TTPS have re­sult­ed in an in­crease in both ve­hic­u­lar and foot pa­trols in the city.

Singh re­mind­ed the pub­lic that po­lice pres­ence would be main­tained Sun­day to Sun­day un­til Car­ni­val 2026, en­sur­ing the safe­ty of pa­trons and busi­nes­sown­ers.

With stores open­ing lat­er as Christ­mas ap­proach­es, Singh not­ed that crime sta­tis­tics re­main rel­a­tive­ly low and, with con­tin­ued vig­i­lance, this trend should not be dis­turbed.

He em­pha­sised that re­ports of crime in San Fer­nan­do have tra­di­tion­al­ly been low, and with the coun­try still un­der a State of Emer­gency, pro­tec­tive ser­vices have a wider range of pow­ers to safe­guard law-abid­ing cit­i­zens stat­ing that shop­pers, there­fore, could en­joy the fes­tive sea­son with­out fear.

Sim­i­lar­ly, Ari­ma Busi­ness As­so­ci­a­tion Pres­i­dent Sudesh Ramkissoon ob­served that the sta­tion has been as­signed more of­fi­cers as coun­cil meet­ings are re­vi­talised.

He stressed that the heart of Ari­ma, where foot traf­fic is high­est, ben­e­fits great­ly from of­fi­cers on pa­trol, as their pres­ence pro­vides shop­pers with a sense of se­cu­ri­ty.

Look­ing ahead, Ramkissoon ex­pressed hope for more ve­hic­u­lar pa­trols dur­ing night time and ear­ly morn­ings, not­ing that while busi­ness­es are cur­rent­ly open­ing and clos­ing at nor­mal times, the Christ­mas buzz has not yet ful­ly tak­en hold.

“As busi­ness own­ers we are al­ways con­cerned about crime the is­sue now is restor­ing faith in the TTPS.” Ramkissoon added.

While these ef­forts are en­cour­ag­ing, Ma­haraj be­lieves that con­tin­ued vis­i­bil­i­ty, es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing peak shop­ping hours and in high traf­fic ar­eas, will be im­por­tant as the sea­son pro­gress­es.

On­go­ing co­or­di­na­tion with mu­nic­i­pal po­lice, traf­fic war­dens, and oth­er stake­hold­ers fur­ther en­hanced the ef­fec­tive­ness of these mea­sures and im­prove the over­all shop­ping ex­pe­ri­ence, he said.

“We would have liked a mo­bile po­lice post at Busy cor­ner to fur­ther make shop­pers feel safe as well as to de­ter po­ten­tial crim­i­nal el­e­ments,” Ma­haraj said.