Farm­ers in Or­ange Grove, Tacarigua, will now see reg­u­lar mount­ed po­lice pa­trols in their dis­trict as part of a joint ef­fort be­tween the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and the Or­ange Grove Farm­ers As­so­ci­a­tion to re­duce rob­beries and crop theft.

Ac­cord­ing to a TTPS state­ment on its of­fi­cial Face­book page, the ini­tia­tive was launched on Mon­day and in­cludes of­fi­cers from the Mount­ed Branch, Pre­di­al Lar­ce­ny Unit, and the North Cen­tral Di­vi­sion.

The po­lice said the move was prompt­ed by the ge­o­graph­i­cal chal­lenges of the area, where large sec­tions of farm­land are dif­fi­cult for ve­hi­cles to ac­cess. Mount­ed of­fi­cers will now be able to pa­trol those sec­tions more ef­fec­tive­ly to pro­tect farm­ers and their pro­duce.

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Rishi Singh said the ini­tia­tive builds on the TTPS’s part­ner­ship with the farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty.

“By com­bin­ing our re­sources and work­ing di­rect­ly with the farm­ing com­mu­ni­ty, we’re en­sur­ing that no area is left un­pro­tect­ed. The safe­ty and liveli­hood of our farm­ers re­main a na­tion­al pri­or­i­ty,” he said.

The TTPS said the pa­trols will be mon­i­tored and may be ex­pand­ed to oth­er agri­cul­tur­al dis­tricts if suc­cess­ful.