The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Gary Grif­fith met with sev­er­al per­sons of in­ter­est last night telling them that the TTPS will re­spond quick­ly if there are any at­tempts to es­ca­late gang-re­lat­ed crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty in the coun­try.

The fol­low­ing is a press re­lease from the TTPS:

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Gary Grif­fith, met last night with sev­er­al well-known “per­sons of in­ter­est”, ad­vis­ing them that the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) will re­spond quick­ly if there are any at­tempts to es­ca­late gang-re­lat­ed crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty in the coun­try. This fol­lows nu­mer­ous What­sApp mes­sages pur­port­ing to such ac­tiv­i­ties, which cir­cu­lat­ed yes­ter­day and which caused fear and pan­ic among the pop­u­la­tion.

Im­me­di­ate­ly up­on re­ceipt of this in­for­ma­tion, DCP (Ag.), ‘Op­er­a­tions’, Joanne Archie, held a co­or­di­nat­ing meet­ing with var­i­ous spe­cialised and in­tel­li­gence units, in­clud­ing GEB, SIU, MOB and IATF, POS CID, all First Di­vi­sion of­fi­cers of POSD, the Traf­fic and High­way Pa­trol Branch and the POS Task­force.

Fol­low­ing this meet­ing, sev­er­al per­sons of in­ter­est were brought in­to the Besson Street and St. Joseph Po­lice Sta­tions. Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith vis­it­ed both po­lice sta­tions, where he is­sued a stern warn­ing to per­sons of in­ter­est that were be­ing held there, mak­ing it clear to them that the “TTPS will not tol­er­ate any plans among groups to cause any may­hem and de­struc­tion.” The CoP said he re­ceived hun­dreds of mes­sages from con­cerned mem­bers of the pub­lic about the ve­rac­i­ty of the mes­sages.

The CoP made it quite clear, that if the mes­sages cir­cu­lat­ing had any truth, the TTPS will move swift­ly to take down any at­tempts to es­ca­late any gang-re­lat­ed crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty that brings in­con­ve­nience to the pub­lic. Com­mis­sion­er Grif­fith re­mind­ed the “per­sons of in­ter­est” of the at­tempts made at the end of June 2020, which were met with im­me­di­ate re­sis­tance by the TTPS.

As a re­sult of the mes­sages which were cir­cu­lat­ing yes­ter­day, the CoP said the TTPS has put cer­tain mea­sures in place should any at­tempts be made to es­ca­late gang-re­lat­ed crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty. The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice wish­es to ad­vise the pub­lic to be wary of mis­in­for­ma­tion that is be­ing cir­cu­lat­ed on so­cial me­dia. There is no in­tel­li­gence to ver­i­fy these al­leged threats.