TTPS: All Hands On Deck For Christmas Season

The Police Service is ensuring that there will be all “hands-on deck on the outside” for the Christmas season.

The statement comes from Deputy Commissioner of Police, Junior Benjamin, as he led a walkabout in the capital city on Christmas Eve morning, with the aim of building a level of police partnership with the public.

He assured that there will be more patrols, joint patrols, and a greater presence of police, at least until Carnival 2025.

"We are putting the necessary strategies in place. I have brought all my Divisional Commanders into what we call the DCP Operation Oversight Committee, and we have looked at the operation for the Christmas into the New Year, and we are very pleased with the work that those officers have put into the operation plans and we are going to ensure that we execute and end the year strong."

Despite a new record murder toll crossing the 600 mark for the year, DCP Benjamin assured that the TTPS will be “relentless” in its pursuits.

"Just as for COVID, there were three Ws that we had to continue to do. Whether the numbers went up or down, we need to continue. We are saying that we are going to continue in terms of our pursuit. We are going to ensure that as the Police Service and DCP operations, we are going to do three things: ensure that there is what we call crime prevention, crime detection, crime conviction. We are going to ensure that we look at our prevention strategies, our suppression strategies, and our intervention strategies to ensure that when we leave a community, it must be better than how we met it."

He also called on the public to play its role in the fight against crime, even during the festive season.

"So, there are different aspects that contribute to the crime, but we want to tell the public, however, that crime is a social construct, and therefore everybody has a part to play. And we want to ensure at this time that as we go out there to face the crime situation, that we have the public on board, and we are asking the public to join with us to ensure that at least, you know, we walk hand-in-hand, and we build that bridge of friendship and community partnership as we get over these troubled waters."

As for the manpower needed to ensure there are enough police officers out during the season, DCP Benjamin said this has been taken care of.

"The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service, we are using innovative ways to deal with the manpower situation. Again, we are having assistance even from our fellow agencies. So, you see a lot of joint patrols. They would be assisting us. You can see also different sections joining with the Divisions to create patrols. So, we are going to have more of that, and these things are going to help us to ensure at the end of the day that we at least fulfil the requirements right now in terms of having more presence on the roadways."

DCP Benjamin said the TTPS will continue to use “intelligence-led evidence-based solutions” to crime heading into 2025.