Gail Alexan­der

Se­nior Po­lit­i­cal Re­porter

A $24.9 mil­lion con­tract award­ed in 2024 for 3,000 body cam­eras for the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has been ter­mi­nat­ed in or­der to save mon­ey and as of June, on­ly 17. 9 per cent of po­lice of­fi­cers used body cams.

Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Min­is­ter Roger Alexan­der re­vealed this in the Sen­ate yes­ter­day, in re­sponse to Op­po­si­tion Sen­a­tor Vish­nu Dhan­paul’s ques­tions on the is­sue.

Dhan­paul had asked Alexan­der to in­di­cate the sta­tus of the 5,000 body cam­eras which were pur­chased for use by the TTPS; and the per­cent­age of of­fi­cers who cur­rent­ly use body cam­eras on ac­tive du­ty.

Alexan­der said based on in­for­ma­tion re­ceived from the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, the TTPS ten­dered for 3,000 body-worn cam­eras, not 5,000, in ac­cor­dance with the reg­u­la­tions es­tab­lished by the Of­fice of the Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tion (OPR).

Alexan­der added, “A let­ter of award dat­ed, was sub­se­quent­ly sub­mit­ted in Au­gust 26, 2024, and was is­sued to a con­trac­tor, in the sum of (TT) $24,965,310.

“On Sep­tem­ber 9, 2024, the con­trac­tor pro­vid­ed the TTPS with a bond in the sum of $2,496,531. At present, that con­tract has since been ter­mi­nat­ed.”

“It was ter­mi­nat­ed … in a bid to save mil­lions of dol­lars… the con­tract was in fact ter­mi­nat­ed,” Alexan­der added.

On whether the project is still a pri­or­i­ty for the Gov­ern­ment, Alexan­der said, “Body-worn cam­eras are part of the tools for a po­lice of­fi­cer—so yes, the an­swer is yes.”

Alexan­der said, as of June 10, 2025, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 17.9 per cent of TTPS of­fi­cers use body-worn cam­eras while on ac­tive du­ty.

He said the body cam­eras are as­signed to the fol­low­ing Di­vi­sions/Branch­es/Sec­tions/Units:

Di­vi­sion­al Task Forces

In­ter-Agency Task Force

↓Emer­gency Re­sponse Pa­trol Branch

↓Traf­fic and High­way Pa­trol Branch

Ten (10) Di­vi­sions:

Port-of-Spain Di­vi­sion

West­ern Di­vi­sion

East­ern Di­vi­sion

South­ern Di­vi­sion

South West­ern Di­vi­sion

North East­ern Di­vi­sion

To­ba­go Di­vi­sion

Cen­tral Di­vi­sion

North­ern Di­vi­sion “North”

North Cen­tral Di­vi­sion

Alexan­der said body-worn cam­eras are as­signed to units and di­vi­sions, rather than to an in­di­vid­ual of­fi­cer.

“As a re­sult, the dai­ly us­age of these de­vices may vary on a day-to-day ba­sis de­pend­ing on the dai­ly as­signed ro­ta­tions and op­er­a­tional needs of the Ser­vice.”

Ash­worth Jack ap­point­ed tem­po­rary sen­a­tor

Ash­worth Jack was among three peo­ple ap­point­ed to act as tem­po­rary Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tors yes­ter­day.

The ap­point­ments were an­nounced by Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Wade Mark to fill va­can­cies due to the ab­sence of Gov­ern­ment sen­a­tors who are over­seas.

One of the three act­ing ap­point­ments was done in ac­cor­dance with the ad­vice of act­ing Prime Min­is­ter Jear­lean John.

Mark said Jack was ap­point­ed to act for UNC Sen­a­tor Do­minic Smith in ac­cor­dance with the ad­vice of the Prime Min­is­ter.

Mark al­so an­nounced the ap­point­ment of Daniel Rasheed to act in the ab­sence of UNC Sen­a­tor Anil Roberts, in ac­cor­dance with the ad­vice of the act­ing Prime Min­is­ter John.

Mark said the ap­point­ment for Arch­bish­op Bar­bara Burke to act in the ab­sence of UNC Sen­a­tor Kenya Charles was al­so done in ac­cor­dance with the Prime Min­is­ter’s ad­vice.

Zo­la Phillips was al­so ap­point­ed an In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor to act in the ab­sence of An­tho­ny Vieira, SC, who is over­seas as well.