With the re­moval of the cur­few and the State of Emer­gency, the T&T De­fence Force and the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice will be en­gag­ing in joint pa­trols as busi­ness own­ers brace for ris­ing crime and pos­si­ble in­creas­es in COVID in­fec­tions.

In San Fer­nan­do, May­or Ju­nia Re­grel­lo said he met with the TTPS, TTDF and the Mu­nic­i­pal po­lice who con­firmed that joint army and po­lice pa­trols will be­gin in the south city as ear­ly as next week. 

In an­tic­i­pa­tion of the Christ­mas rush, Re­grel­lo said he was heart­ened by the in­crease in busi­ness in­vest­ments seen in the city with the open­ing of the new Pen­ny­wise Cen­tre on High Street which showed con­fi­dence in eco­nom­ic in­vest­ments.

Re­grel­lo said the po­lice and army are in high gear to deal with any up­surge in crime. Al­ready, the po­lice have been out in full force giv­ing tick­ets to peo­ple who fail to wear their masks.

“Mu­nic­i­pal and joint po­lice and army pa­trols will be­gin next week in and around the main shop­ping cen­tres, par­tic­u­lar­ly on High Street,” the May­or said.

Mean­while, pres­i­dent of the Greater San Fer­nan­do Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce Ki­ran Singh said it may take some time be­fore busi­ness­es be­gin to open for longer hours.

“Speak­ing with the mem­bers of the Cham­ber and wider busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty and what has been hap­pen­ing is lo­gis­tics are be­ing put in place to ben­e­fit from no clo­sure and re­moval of the SoE and cur­few. It will take some time be­fore the busi­ness­es be­gin open­ing lat­er hours but we are cer­tain we will see an in­crease in busi­ness ac­tiv­i­ties,” Singh said.

He added, “We are con­cerned that crim­i­nal el­e­ments will be­come more ac­tive with the end of the SoE. Crime was low­er dur­ing the pan­dem­ic and we are hop­ing that the hard­work­ing mem­bers of the TTPS, as well as the Mu­nic­i­pal po­lice, will be more vig­i­lant es­pe­cial­ly dur­ing the night.”

He al­so said he looked for­ward to joint army pa­trols.

 “It is usu­al­ly the norm that the TTDF will sup­port the TTPS and we ex­pect to see joint pa­trols lead­ing up to the end of the year,” Singh added.

He said while there are of­fi­cers still in quar­an­tine, he hoped that there will be an in­crease in pa­trols. 

But the Pres­i­dent of the Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion Gre­go­ry Aboud said the busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty should be mind­ful that when pub­licly ex­press­ing crime con­cerns, crim­i­nal el­e­ments may see this as a weak­ness in the Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty ap­pa­ra­tus.

“It may not be nec­es­sary at this point to ex­hib­it all con­cerns so pub­licly be­cause it may be in that pub­lic ex­pres­sion of fear...crim­i­nal el­e­ments may see it as a weak point in the na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty ap­pa­ra­tus,” Aboud added.

He not­ed, “The busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty needs to ex­hib­it con­fi­dence in the pro­tec­tive ser­vices and Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty ap­pa­ra­tus and stand firm­ly be­hind law and or­der and re­alise we can­not have a non-stop State of Emer­gency to make peo­ple feel safe.”

Aboud added, “ We have to be de­ter­mined, vig­i­lant and sup­port­ive of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices. The pro­tec­tive ser­vices are ready to deal with any fool­ish­ness or malfea­sance that may arise.”