CoP: SOE extension not my decision

Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro says any decision on whether to extend the State of Emergency (SOE) rests with the Government, as he defended the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s handling of crime, protests and public security concerns.

Speaking with reporters in Tobago, Guevarro made it clear that the TTPS does not determine whether the emergency measures remain in place.

The National Security Council headed by the Prime Minister makes the final decision on whether to extend the state of emergency. The Commissioner of Police is part of the National Security Council.

On the recent rise in multiple homicides, Guevarro acknowledged the challenge facing investigators but said predicting murders remains difficult.

“These multiple homicide incidents, we are very hard pressed to figure out in terms of predicting where homicides come from,” he said.

“We wish that we could be omnipresent everywhere and we wish we could predict the homicides that are going to occur, thus we’d be able to put assets and resources in places to prevent them.”

He said the police continue to rely on intelligence gathering and public cooperation to prevent and solve violent crimes.

“At this point in time, we would like to rely on the intelligence that we have and ask the members of the citizenry to share information that they may have with us, to allow us to solve these crimes and to better predict where these occurrences will take place and thus put preventative measures in place.”

Asked whether police were on top of the crime situation despite a recent series of double and triple murders, Guevarro said the TTPS continues to assess incidents and deploy resources where needed.

Crime in Tobago also remains a concern following the island’s sixth murder for the year.

“Every single homicide in Trinidad and Tobago is of particular concern to the TTPS,” Guevarro said.

“What I will be able to tell you is that we monitor and we evaluate each incident and we put particular treatments in place to deal with it going forward.”