Ot­to Car­ring­ton

Se­nior Re­porter

ot­to.car­ring­ton@cnc3.co.tt

As thou­sands of com­muters were left scram­bling for trans­porta­tion dur­ing yes­ter­day’s na­tion­wide maxi-taxi strike, Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro or­dered the de­ploy­ment of po­lice bus­es to trans­port strand­ed pas­sen­gers home.

He de­scribed the move as part of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice’s (TTPS) re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect vul­ner­a­ble cit­i­zens dur­ing an un­prece­dent­ed dis­rup­tion to pub­lic trans­port.

The first wave of po­lice bus­es tar­get­ed the el­der­ly and stu­dents.

Stand­ing at the City Gate, Port-of-Spain hub, as po­lice bus­es fer­ried com­muters out of the cap­i­tal, Gue­var­ro said the TTPS moved swift­ly af­ter recog­nis­ing the im­pact the in­dus­tri­al ac­tion would have had on the trav­el­ling pub­lic.

“In recog­nis­ing the maxi-taxi strike from ear­li­er to­day would have caused some sig­nif­i­cant dis­rup­tion in the mass tran­sit of Trinidad and To­ba­go, I spoke with the ACP of Spe­cialised Sup­port, Mr Bri­an Sood­een, and we mo­bilised all the po­lice bus­es that are read­i­ly avail­able to as­sist in trans­port­ing per­sons to their homes,” Gue­var­ro said.

“So, at this point in time, we are in the process of de­liv­er­ing on that promise to the Trinidad and To­ba­go trav­el­ling pub­lic.”

The TTPS de­ployed five bus­es to the ac­tiv­i­ty, but Gue­var­ro ad­mit­ted the de­mand far ex­ceed­ed the re­sources avail­able.

“I wish we had 50 (bus­es),” Gue­var­ro said, not­ing pri­or­i­ty was giv­en to school­child­ren and el­der­ly com­muters who were left vul­ner­a­ble by the shut­down.

“Yes, most as­sured­ly, our first tar­get were the vul­ner­a­ble school chil­dren and the el­der­ly and get­ting them safe­ly home. So, that’s the rea­son why we chose this time at half-past two when school was just over, so as to get them out of the town as fast as pos­si­ble.”

As long lines formed at trans­port hubs across the coun­try in­to the evening, Gue­var­ro as­sured the pub­lic that the po­lice ser­vice would con­tin­ue to pro­vide as­sis­tance where nec­es­sary.

“Most as­sured­ly, once there is a need for it, the TTPS will be here to as­sist. The sec­ond trip is com­ing, so they will be go­ing to Ari­ma, drop off, pick up, come back down and do an­oth­er trip. We will mon­i­tor it as it goes along and we will put what­ev­er is in place to treat with it as it comes along.”

Call­ing the strike im­pact a “very unique sit­u­a­tion,” he de­fend­ed the de­ci­sion to ded­i­cate po­lice re­sources to trans­porta­tion du­ties, say­ing, “So, be­fore em­bark­ing on this, we did what we call a risk as­sess­ment and that risk as­sess­ment told us that in leav­ing these peo­ple here tonight, be­ing vul­ner­a­ble and strand­ed far out­weighs what we are do­ing in terms of pos­i­tiv­i­ty.

“So, we are tak­ing them out of harm’s way and to their homes rather than leav­ing them here to be strand­ed tonight and then you, the me­dia, will be here tonight re­port­ing on look, 500 peo­ple strand­ed. We are tak­ing them out. The end jus­ti­fies the means.”

He stressed that the op­er­a­tion was be­ing pro­vid­ed free of charge.

Gue­var­ro al­so used the op­por­tu­ni­ty to un­der­score what he sees as the broad­er role of the TTPS be­yond law en­force­ment.

“The most im­por­tant mes­sage I would like the pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go to hear from the TTPS is that we stand ready to as­sist in any way pos­si­ble and by this ges­ture here to­day, I just like to show that we are not just about en­force­ment of the law but al­so as­sist­ing the pub­lic in any way that is pos­si­ble.”

As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Bri­an Sood­een, who co­or­di­nat­ed the op­er­a­tion, cred­it­ed the ini­tia­tive to the com­mis­sion­er.

“The com­mis­sion­er called me ear­ly this morn­ing in an­tic­i­pa­tion of what could be hap­pen­ing here this af­ter­noon with per­sons left strand­ed. So, it was his ini­tia­tive and I op­er­a­tionalised the ex­er­cise this af­ter­noon,” Sood­een said.

“Our dri­vers are prop­er­ly briefed on all safe­ty pro­to­cols to en­sure that the trav­el­ling pub­lic reach­es their des­ti­na­tion safe­ly.”

PM com­mends of­fi­cers

for ef­fort

Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has praised mem­bers of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) for as­sist­ing mem­bers of the pub­lic af­fect­ed by yes­ter­day’s is­land­wide maxi taxi protest, com­mend­ing of­fi­cers for go­ing be­yond their tra­di­tion­al law en­force­ment du­ties to help strand­ed com­muters reach their des­ti­na­tions.

While Per­sad-Bisses­sar did not re­spond to Guardian Me­dia’s ques­tions re­gard­ing the plight of the divers on day one of their planned ac­tion yes­ter­day, in a state­ment is­sued on so­cial me­dia, the Prime Min­is­ter thanked of­fi­cers who stepped in to pro­vide trans­porta­tion and as­sis­tance to cit­i­zens.

“Po­lice of­fi­cers have stepped for­ward not on­ly to main­tain pub­lic or­der and safe­ty, but al­so to as­sist strand­ed cit­i­zens, sup­port vul­ner­a­ble mem­bers of the pop­u­la­tion, and help peo­ple get to their des­ti­na­tions to­day,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar said.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the ac­tions of the of­fi­cers re­flect­ed the TTPS’ core val­ues.

“These ac­tions em­body the very essence of the Po­lice Ser­vice’s mot­to: To Pro­tect and Serve,” she stat­ed.

She added, “The will­ing­ness of our of­fi­cers to go be­yond the call of du­ty demon­strates a deep com­mit­ment to the peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go and re­flects the finest tra­di­tions of pub­lic ser­vice.”

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the na­tion was grate­ful for the of­fi­cers’ ef­forts.

“We thank every of­fi­cer who has con­tributed to these hu­man­i­tar­i­an ef­forts. Your pro­fes­sion­al­ism, ded­i­ca­tion, and con­cern for your fel­low cit­i­zens have not gone un­no­ticed and are deeply ap­pre­ci­at­ed by the peo­ple of our na­tion,” the Prime Min­is­ter said.