Police: Carnival was generally safe

Acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Junior Benjamin said despite the two homicides on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, the Carnival period was generally safe. He said the police continued to work on making the safety and security of citizens its highest priority.

Benjamin was speaking at a media conference at the Police Administration Building, Edward and Sackville Streets on March 5.

“We had at least two homicides during the Carnival period. Because of the deployment of our officers and the fact they were at almost every corner, the suspects in both homicides were apprehended. The weapons they used were also seized. We are investigating these situations and will bring these people before a court of competent jurisdiction to answer the necessary charges.”

Benjamin said the police were investigating reports that the suspect in one homicide is a licensed firearm holder. He said both incidents may have been due to altercations and urged people to have better self-control.

He thanked police officers for turning out to ensure the safety and security of the public. He thanked the Ministry of National Security and all other law enforcement officers who assisted during the period.

Benjamin said there were 66 murders to date, compared to 95 in 2024 and 111 in 2023, a 31 per cent decrease.

He said there has been a 74 per cent decrease in home invasions, with 27 to date in 2025 compared to 103 in 2024. He urged people to do proper background checks on people they were bringing into their homes to help with their safety.

DCP operations Curt Simon said there were seven homicides between February 28 and March 4. He said the police were not satisfied with the reduction and were implementing additional security layers.

Gold Commander ACP Richard Smith said eight of ten divisions had reported no serious incidents.

He said officers were out from 1 am on Monday morning searching people at the entrances to Port of Spain and there were four wreckers in the capital, leading to 280 vehicles being wrecked.

“There were four trucks taken off the road for non-compliance between Monday and Tuesday and one on Carnival Saturday during Kiddies Carnival, where the truck was too high and some lines were pulled down. We had a compliance unit which is a collaborative effort between the police service and the licensing authority, who were out in full force.”

Smith said there were no sanctions for these trucks or the bands, although discussions had been ongoing with bandleaders. He said the trucks were inspected without music boxes as they were being used to deliver goods before the events. He said stipulations were given by the licensing office and if the trucks breached those, they would have breached the contract with the bandleader and not be able to perform on the road.

Smith said generally people complied with the ban on glass bottles and those who did not were ignorant of the law.

Smith said officers were well fed and received excellent meals and care packages. He said they were satisfied with their duty structures.

He said officers would have been drawn from different divisions to supplement the PoS division for Carnival, as was the norm. He said rural J’Ouvert celebrations would not have strained the police resources as divisional commanders would have requested personnel for the purpose of covering the festivities.

Newsday received reports that in the PoS/Woodbrook division, there was a low turn-out of rostered officers for each shift, and lunches were not delivered in some cases until after 9 pm. Asked about these reports, Smith said he did not have that information at that time.

“We are still compiling the information as it relates to attendance of officers, the sick and absent personnel, so that’s still ongoing. I have also not received complaints about lunches.”

Simon said the police did 47 operations between Monday and Tuesday, even though many officers were involved in policing Carnival.

“We targeted and arrested a number of priority offenders. We had 38 detention orders on Friday and today (Tuesday) we have 54, which is a remarkable feat to happen over the Carnival period. We have a number of people detained under those orders, some of which are still facing the ministerial team advising the National Security Minister and we are expecting to have additional detention orders, showing a ramp up by the service in executing the state of emergency (SoE) efforts.”

Simon said since the beginning of the SoE, the police had done 3,427 operations, recovering 125 firearms, 2,872 assorted rounds of ammunition, 320 kilogrammes (kg) of marijuana and 2.6 kg of cocaine.

Benjamin said investigations were continuing into the missing coast guard officer, the missing TT regiment ammunition and the triple murder in Guanapo.

He said the police service had received advice from the DPP in the case of Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher and would be going back to the DPP at some point.