The ongoing state of emergency (SoE) is a “well-designed and well-crafted one” designed to affect the criminal community, as evident by the lack of incidents reported during Carnival 2025, up to yesterday morning.
This was the description given by Minister of National Security Fitzgerald Hinds during a walkabout throughout Port of Spain yesterday.
The walkabout was attended by various arms of national security, including acting Commissioner of Police Junior Benjamin, Assistant Commissioner of Police Richard Smith, and Chief of Defence Staff Vice-Marshal Darryl Daniel, among others.
Speaking with the media at various points throughout the walkabout, Hinds said that the “confidence walk”, as he described it, showed the law enforcement platform was united.
“It is strong and almost omnipresent,” Hinds said, saying the general feeling of safety had been echoed to him by both citizens and visitors to this country.
“We are quite proud and pleased, representing T&T, to have put in place a security apparatus that makes them, as they are attesting to, feel very comfortable,” Hinds said.
He once again reiterated that while crime was everywhere, it was the collaborative approach of law enforcement in this country which should be credited for the recent successes seen during the SoE.
Benjamin declared Carnival celebrations a success yesterday morning.
He told reporters the only major incident reported was an incident where a music truck ran over a reveller in San Fernando on Monday.
He assured that incident is being investigated and added: “We will not make a call until the vehicle has been checked by the necessary authorities. And other than that, we had some minor things, but certainly, that has nothing to do with the crime situation in terms of the carnivals. But all in all, what we can say right now is that persons are feeling free.”
He also commented on a recent drive-by shooting incident where a man was killed in Corinth Hills on Sunday, and said a suspect has been apprehended.
He said: “And that is what we are seeing; the performance of the police force is such that where we can’t stop it, we are going to solve it. And we are going to continue to look at all the other homicides and with, you know, 100% determination to solve these situations. Hopefully, we get good results, even as we go along.”
“Right now, homicide, we are seeing at least a 33% decline. And when we look at it, we have at least 30 murders less than we had last year. So we will continue to push. We are not satisfied, but we will continue to push to ensure a safer and better Trinidad and Tobago,” he added.
Benjamin also said that reports from Gold Commander DCP Smith were that there was a heightened police presence at Carnival festivities as officers were out in full force.
“In fact, we have more officers out there than we probably ever had in the last couple of years. So it means that our strategies are working. We have our persons at all the checkpoints so persons could feel safe. And we want to encourage persons that safety and security are our priority as the Police Service,” said the acting CoP.
He further said: “I can tell you that probably we have at least about 70-80% of our officers that have turned up, and we will continue to at least, you know, seek to increase those numbers even as we go home because we have a shift system.”
When asked about his last stint in holding the office as the Minister of National Security, Hinds said he was very proud of the work done thus far, however, he noted the fight against crime was “a moving goalpost”.
“The business of crime, criminality and lawlessness are very human conditions, and once human beings are involved, all things are possible…. I am particularly proud that we have seem to have struck, we have seemed to have found a very wonderful, well-oiled formula,” Hinds said.
He added that the recent positive feedback he had received was a positive testament that security initiatives were working.
However, when asked by reporters if he would be recommending an extension of the SoE, Hinds said it could only be effected by the President, done on the advice of the Cabinet. “And I am not the Cabinet,” he said.
Reporting by Alexander Bruzual
