An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Er­la Hare­wood Christo­pher said 126 peo­ple have been ar­rest­ed since the State of Emer­gency (SoE) went in­to ef­fect on De­cem­ber 30 and 17 firearms, more than 675 rounds of as­sort­ed am­mu­ni­tion, and vary­ing quan­ti­ties of nar­cotics had been seized dur­ing 1,011 search­es.

The ar­rests and seizures fol­lowed 257 an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions con­duct­ed across the ten polic­ing di­vi­sions by of­fi­cers from spe­cial­ist units, sol­diers from the T&T De­fence Force (TTDF) and ex­ter­nal law-en­force­ment agen­cies.

The CoP said al­though 126 sus­pects have so far been ar­rest­ed, the po­lice are go­ing af­ter 275 pri­or­i­ty of­fend­ers based on in­tel­li­gence.

In a state­ment yes­ter­day, Hare­wood-Christo­pher said the fight had just start­ed. She al­so as­sured that her of­fi­cers were care­ful­ly mon­i­tor­ing all ac­tions to en­sure there was no abuse of pow­er dur­ing the SoE.

“The pow­ers grant­ed to of­fi­cers un­der the SoE reg­u­la­tions are al­low­ing us to push back against the pro­lif­er­a­tion of gang and gun vi­o­lence in our coun­try,” she said.

“We have main­tained that our ac­tions are to en­sure the safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty of all the law-abid­ing cit­i­zens of Trinidad and To­ba­go.”

The CoP thanked of­fi­cers for their tire­less com­mit­ment and un­wa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to restor­ing law and or­der and pro­tect­ing the cit­i­zen­ry.

“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,” she said.

“To­geth­er, we can use this time, to win the bat­tle against the crim­i­nal el­e­ments.”

Hare­wood-Christo­pher ap­pealed to cit­i­zens to “work with law en­force­ment to bring an end to the sense­less vi­o­lence that caus­es us all so much pain.”

Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, Op­er­a­tions, Ju­nior Ben­jamin urged cit­i­zens to con­tin­ue to co­op­er­ate with the au­thor­i­ties.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

Deputy Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er, In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions, Suzette Mar­tin said, “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.”

Hare­wood-Christo­pher added, “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.”