An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is as­sur­ing the pub­lic that com­pre­hen­sive se­cu­ri­ty arrange­ments are in place for the Point Fortin Bor­ough Day cel­e­bra­tions this week­end.

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing in Port-of-Spain yes­ter­day, As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent (ASP) Joel Forbes, of the South West­ern Di­vi­sion, said res­i­dents, mas­quer­aders and spec­ta­tors can ex­pect a se­cu­ri­ty de­ploy­ment sim­i­lar to that im­ple­ment­ed dur­ing the 2026 na­tion­al Car­ni­val sea­son.

This as­sur­ance was re­in­forced by Gold Com­man­der, ACP An­tho­ny Re­my, of the South Cen­tral Di­vi­sion, who said the op­er­a­tion will in­volve a co­or­di­nat­ed mul­ti-agency ap­proach.

He out­lined key mea­sures, in­clud­ing in­creased po­lice vis­i­bil­i­ty, strate­gic de­ploy­ments across ma­jor event lo­ca­tions, traf­fic man­age­ment sys­tems and in­tel­li­gence-led polic­ing de­signed to pre­vent and re­spond swift­ly to any threats or dis­rup­tions.

Re­my said spe­cialised units will be on stand­by for rapid de­ploy­ment and urged the pub­lic to recog­nise their role in en­sur­ing safe­ty.

“Ex­er­cise good judge­ment, com­ply with the law and demon­strate re­spect for oth­ers while en­joy­ing the fes­tiv­i­ties,” he said.

He added that co­op­er­a­tion with law en­force­ment would be crit­i­cal.

“Sim­ple ac­tions such as obey­ing traf­fic reg­u­la­tions, avoid­ing ex­ces­sive al­co­hol con­sump­tion, and co­op­er­at­ing with of­fi­cers on du­ty can sig­nif­i­cant­ly con­tribute to a safe and en­joy­able ex­pe­ri­ence for every­one,” Re­my said.

Forbes con­firmed that all re­stric­tions and se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures will take ef­fect from as ear­ly as 2 am on Sat­ur­day, with au­thor­i­ties ex­pect­ing ap­prox­i­mate­ly 13,000 peo­ple at peak at­ten­dance.

He al­so de­tailed des­ig­nat­ed ve­hic­u­lar routes, emer­gency ac­cess cor­ri­dors and evac­u­a­tion points, and warned mo­torists that wreck­ing ser­vices will be ac­tive. Ve­hi­cles found in breach of reg­u­la­tions will be towed to the Melville Tri­an­gle at Guapo Road, Point Fortin.

The pub­lic was al­so ad­vised that the San Fer­nan­do and Ce­dros/Erin taxi stands will be tem­porar­i­ly re­lo­cat­ed for the du­ra­tion of the cel­e­bra­tions.

Forbes re­it­er­at­ed that the ban on glass bot­tles re­mains in ef­fect, cit­ing their use as po­ten­tial weapons at pub­lic events. He said au­thor­i­ties have ob­served a re­duc­tion in bot­tle-re­lat­ed vi­o­lent in­ci­dents at sim­i­lar gath­er­ings due to the ban.

How­ev­er, he said they would take a “soft ap­proach” to en­force­ment, ex­plain­ing that in­di­vid­u­als found with glass bot­tles will be re­quired to trans­fer their bev­er­ages in­to plas­tic con­tain­ers, af­ter which po­lice will con­fis­cate and dis­pose of the glass bot­tles.

Forbes said stake­hold­ers, in­clud­ing pro­mot­ers, bar own­ers and street ven­dors, have been en­gaged and are aware of the reg­u­la­tions. He added that strin­gent checks will be con­duct­ed at en­try points to en­sure com­pli­ance.

A tem­po­rary med­ical field unit is al­so ex­pect­ed to be es­tab­lished to man­age emer­gen­cies dur­ing the event. Band lead­ers and mu­sic truck op­er­a­tors have been in­struct­ed to com­ply with reg­u­la­tions, with a ded­i­cat­ed com­pli­ance team as­signed to ver­i­fy doc­u­men­ta­tion.

Se­cu­ri­ty sup­port will be pro­vid­ed by mul­ti­ple arms of the pro­tec­tive ser­vices, in­clud­ing the In­ter-Agency Task Force (IATF), Guard and Emer­gency Branch (GEB), Air Sup­port Unit, Ca­nine Unit, Trinidad and To­ba­go Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice Ser­vice (TTMPS) and the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force (TTDF).

Re­spond­ing to ques­tions about the role of the TTMPS, giv­en on­go­ing scruti­ny of the or­gan­i­sa­tion, Forbes said their par­tic­i­pa­tion re­mains un­changed.

“Noth­ing has changed with the mu­nic­i­pal po­lice in terms of their com­mit­ment. We have their com­mit­ment,” he said.

ACP Re­my al­so is­sued a light-heart­ed ad­vi­so­ry to fe­male mas­quer­aders, urg­ing them to re­frain from win­ing or gy­rat­ing on po­lice of­fi­cers dur­ing the cel­e­bra­tions.

“The ad­vi­so­ry is the same,” he said, echo­ing com­ments made dur­ing Car­ni­val 2026, adding with a smile that of­fi­cers should be avoid­ed in such sit­u­a­tions.

He clar­i­fied that a “soft dis­cour­age­ment” ap­proach would be used.

“What I mean is that mem­bers of the pub­lic and mas­quer­aders would not be roughed up by the po­lice. They will be spo­ken to and po­lite­ly dis­suad­ed from do­ing so,” he said.

Res­i­dents in the bor­ough have been asked to vis­it the Point Fortin Po­lice Sta­tion to­day and to­mor­row to reg­is­ter and ob­tain pass­es grant­i­ng ac­cess to re­strict­ed ar­eas dur­ing the fes­tiv­i­ties.