With over 126 sus­pects ar­rest­ed, 17 firearms and over 675 rounds of as­sort­ed am­mu­ni­tion seized since the State of Emer­gency (SOE) was de­clared on Mon­day 30th De­cem­ber, 2024, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Er­la Hare­wood-Christo­pher says, ‘the fight is just get­ting start­ed.’

In a me­dia re­lease to­day, the TTPS said the suc­cess­es are a re­sult of 257 an­ti-crime Op­er­a­tions con­duct­ed across the ten Di­vi­sions of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS), in­volv­ing thou­sands of of­fi­cers from var­i­ous Branch­es, Sec­tions and Units, aid­ed by per­son­nel from the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force and part­ner law-en­force­ment agen­cies.

It said to date, a to­tal of 126 sus­pects have been ar­rest­ed un­der the SOE Reg­u­la­tions, with 275 pri­or­i­ty of­fend­ers be­ing tar­get­ed by of­fi­cers as a re­sult of in­tel­li­gence-led ex­er­cis­es.

Sev­en­teen firearms, 675 rounds of as­sort­ed am­mu­ni­tion and quan­ti­ties of cannabis and co­caine were al­so seized dur­ing these ex­ten­sive ex­er­cis­es, which in­clud­ed 1011 search­es.

Com­mis­sion­er Hare­wood-Christo­pher said, “The Pow­ers grant­ed to of­fi­cers un­der the SOE Reg­u­la­tions is al­low­ing us to push back against the pro­lif­er­a­tion of gang and gun vi­o­lence in our coun­try. We have main­tained that our ac­tions are to en­sure the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of all the law-abid­ing cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.

She said, “I thank the tire­less and ded­i­cat­ed of­fi­cers who have been de­ployed day and night to pro­tect the cit­i­zens of this na­tion. Your sac­ri­fice and that of your fam­i­lies is great­ly ap­pre­ci­at­ed at this time and the Ex­ec­u­tive of the TTPS will con­tin­ue to pro­vide the sup­port you need to do your du­ties. To­geth­er, we can use this time, to win the bat­tle against the crim­i­nal el­e­ments. I there­fore ap­peal to all cit­i­zens to work with law en­force­ment to bring an end to the sense­less vi­o­lence that caus­es us all so much pain”.

DCP, Op­er­a­tions, Ju­nior Ben­j­main added, “I wish to as­sure the cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go that the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice is work­ing dili­gent­ly and strate­gi­cal­ly to re­store safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty across our na­tion. Pub­lic co­op­er­a­tion is vi­tal dur­ing this pe­ri­od. I en­cour­age every­one to work with us by shar­ing any in­for­ma­tion that may as­sist in ap­pre­hend­ing of­fend­ers lo­cat­ing il­le­gal firearms or un­cov­er­ing crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty.

Your part­ner­ship is cru­cial, and every piece of in­for­ma­tion, no mat­ter how small, could make a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence. While DCP, In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Suzette Mar­tin stat­ed, ‘the TTPS is com­mit­ted to op­er­at­ing with­in the bound­aries of the law. While we have been grant­ed en­hanced pow­ers un­der the State of Emer­gency, these pow­ers will not be abused. Law-abid­ing cit­i­zens have noth­ing to fear from our of­fi­cers. Our fo­cus re­mains firm­ly on crim­i­nals, and our ac­tions are guid­ed by pro­fes­sion­al­ism, ac­count­abil­i­ty, and re­spect for the rights of all law-abid­ing cit­i­zens.

The CoP fur­ther stat­ed, “The Ex­ec­u­tive of the TTPS is care­ful­ly mon­i­tor­ing our progress dur­ing this SOE pe­ri­od, en­sur­ing that all ac­tions are tak­en with­in the law. We give all law-abid­ing cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go the as­sur­ance that the TTPS stands com­mit­ted and ready to pro­tect your rights, while we go af­ter the crim­i­nals who care lit­tle for your lives.”