Police: 400 new officers coming soon

The TT Police Service (TTPS) should have 700 new officers by the end of this year with more than 100 of them expected to hit the streets by the end of January, and 300 more in the coming months.

ACP Richard Smith gave the numbers as he spoke at a police media briefing on January 15.

Smith explained there were 300 recruits in training and just over 100 had recently graduated.

“We had four batches training. We call them batch one, two, three and four of 2024. Last week, Friday (January 10) batch one with 113 officers graduated at the Police Academy. The other batches would be graduated in succession probably a month apart.”

The figure is below the 1,000 recruits Finance Minister Colm Imbert promised in his 2023/2024 budget presentation.

Speaking at a police interfaith service in San Fernando on January 5, Commissioner of Police (CoP) Erla Harewood-Christopher said it was a result of applicants failing various aspects of the recruitment process.

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, in an interview on January 12, noted the failure to meet the 1,000 recruit target was unfortunate, given the large numbers of applicants who came forward.

“They can’t pass a drug test. They can’t pass polygraph test. Some can’t pass the psychometric testing.

“Of all the young people who offered themselves, the list got slimmer and slimmer.”

Harewood-Christopher said the inability to recruit officers would affect the manpower available.

“Until we are able to recruit, we will have (a) shortage.”

On January 15, Smith said in addition to the recruits in training, the police had already embarked on another recruitment drive.

“We are in fact in the process of recruiting approximately 300 more officers by the end of this month, and we are also in the process of recruiting some special reserve officers in the vicinity of 250 of them.”

Despite the 700 officers expected to be added to the force this year, the police still faces a staff shortage.

“We have 400 in training now right, and when we recruit the 300 by the end of this month we will be in a deficit of regular police officers by about between six to 700 officers at that point in time.”

The 113 officers, who had their passing-out parade on January 10, are expected to go straight into the field and contribute to the ongoing state of emergency operations.

SoE Operations successful

DCP Junior Benjamin, also speaking at the media briefing, believes the SoE has “seen some meaningful success thus far.”

He encouraged officers to “continue pressing” and called on the public to work with the police.

“I want to ask at the same time for the public to join us as we seek to work together to get the evidence, to get all the necessary evidence to bring persons to justice.

“All in all, I think that we are heading along the right road and we are confident as we continue to pursue this fight against crime, that we will be successful.”

Benjamin said at least 855 people had been targeted under the SoE powers with 4,962 searches.

“Of those searches, at least 659 persons were arrested, with 37 firearms, 1,053 ammunition, 127 kg of marijuana and 607 grammes of cocaine seized during those searches.”

Police also conducted two searches on Frederick Street as part of its SoE operations in Port of Spain on January 15.

Asked about the searches, head of the Port of Spain division Snr Supt Raymond Thom said they were in line with that of crime fighting and the state of emergency.

"I have no reports of anything being found and the searches went smoothly according to my reports."

At the media conference, Benjamin added that 713 traffic operations had resulted in “at least 2,055 traffic offences being detected.”

Providing additional data to support their comments, Smith said there has been a 44 per cent reduction in murders when compared to the same period in 2024 with 14 recorded up till January 15.

Smith said there has been 73 per cent decrease in violent crimes, while the police have been able to seize more guns.

“We have recovered 37 firearms thus far for 2025 as compared to 15 in 2024 for the same period. So that's 22 more firearms this year, which puts us at 147% increase with firearm recovery.”

Smith said property crimes including larceny, burglaries and break-ins were also down with 142 in 2024 compared to 49 in 2025, a 65 per cent reduction.

Asked about the success of the SoE in putting gang members behind bars, Smith said that had proven to be a bit more difficult.

“It's a tedious investigation. The SoE gave us some powers to keep them in custody while we conduct our investigation as it relates to them. So we have been doing just that and then we need to take it before the National Security Minister when we decide to go further for the preventative detention.

“We must meet a particular threshold in order to send them for further detention… So we don't want to just do haphazard investigations. We want to do it in a structured way so that we will not be making mistakes that were made prior.”

In 2018, the state paid $400,000 to eight men who were arrested and held during the 2011 SoE.

During that SoE, dozens of people were arrested and held for an extended period before being released after their cases were reviewed by officials from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Benjamin said the police, though, are still targeting gang members “on a daily basis.

“Some of them have been arrested and are in custody. Some of them are fleeing for their lives. They are running all over the country migrating to different parts of the country.

“That's the reason we are pleading with members of the public if you see strange persons in your district please call because they may be a danger to you or your families.”

Violent Crime statistics 2024/2025

Crime..................................2024..................2025

Murder....................................25......................14

Woundings and shootings.......24........................4

Sexual offences.......................33........................7

Kidnapping................................7........................4

Kidnapping for ransom.............1........................0

Robberies................................80......................17

Total......................................170......................46