Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro says of­fi­cers will not com­pro­mise the in­tegri­ty of on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions to rush charges against peo­ple de­tained dur­ing the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE).

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions yes­ter­day on the 36th day of the SoE, which was de­clared on Ju­ly 18, the Com­mis­sion­er in­sist­ed, “Every de­ten­tion un­der the State of Emer­gency is ground­ed in in­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tions aimed at im­me­di­ate con­tain­ment.”

The CoP ex­plained, “While charges are not al­ways filed at the point of de­ten­tion, in­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing and ev­i­dence is be­ing metic­u­lous­ly com­piled.”

How­ev­er, he as­sured, “We will not com­pro­mise due process for ex­pe­di­en­cy, but nei­ther will we al­low im­puni­ty to flour­ish.”

Pressed about why the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) con­tin­ues to re­main silent re­gard­ing ques­tions about ar­rests and de­ten­tions, the top cop said, “Op­er­a­tional se­cu­ri­ty and le­gal pru­dence some­times re­quire with­hold­ing de­tails un­til in­ves­ti­ga­tions are in an ad­vanced stage, and even then, it may still not be pru­dent to re­spond.”

Gue­var­ro al­so ac­knowl­edged, “We un­der­stand the pub­lic’s need for clar­i­ty, and we are com­mit­ted to trans­paren­cy, but that must come with­out com­pro­mis­ing the in­tegri­ty of on­go­ing cas­es or na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty.”

The SoE was called due to what the Com­mis­sion­er and Gov­ern­ment said were on­go­ing threats from or­gan­ised crime syn­di­cates op­er­at­ing both in­side and out­side the prison sys­tem. Par­lia­ment has ex­tend­ed the SoE un­til late Oc­to­ber. — An­na-Lisa Paul