It has bedeviled every administration in Trinidad for the past 30 years: violent crime. Rocked by Sunday night’s gangland slaying of five people in the capital, a frustrated cabinet decided to declare a state of emergency (SOE) to give police and the military additional powers to deal with the situation, with the 2024 murder rate is on course to set new records at 623 murders up to the start of the work week, with more than 60 murders in December alone.
Locals woke up on Monday to an announcement from ceremonial President Christine Kangaloo saying that a state of emergency had been declared in the federation of Trinidad and Tobago in the aftermath of the five slayings on Sunday night. Those murders took the total to 623 with two days left in the year. The 2024 figure easily surpassed the 577 people killed in the southernmost Caribbean island in 2023.
A frustrated administration said it was time to act. Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley asked Kangaloo to do the honors and declare an emergency situation.
Kangalo noted that she declared a state of public emergency as president and commander in chief, based on Rowley’s advice and being satisfied that the circumstances outlined in Section 8(2)(c) of the Constitution exist. “I am satisfied that a public emergency has risen as a result of the occurrence of action that has been taken, or is immediately threatened, by any person, of such a nature and on so extensive a scale, as to be likely to endanger the public safety; and a state of public emergency exists in TT,” she said in the proclamation.
Unlike in previous SOEs in 1990 after a bloody attempted coup and in 2011 as crime rates soared, there will be no curfew or restrictions on public meetings, marches, or gatherings this time around. Both acting Attorney General Stuart Young and Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds suggested that this SOE is specifically aimed at giving police and the military additional constitutional powers to deal with heavily armed criminals engaged in inter-gang warfare, extortion of businesses, arson attacks on properties, home invasions, kidnappings for ransoms, and other violent acts.
Young told reporters that the cabinet had taken a deliberate decision not to impose a curfew because “[we] do not want to limit economic activity. We have to trust those with responsibility for national security. It is giving additional powers where constitutional rights have been suspended for those of particular offenders. The initial period will last for three months with an option for three more with approval from Parliament.
“We’re going to have a 48-hour holding period where people can be held under these regulations. Thereafter, either a magistrate or a senior police officer can make an order of detention for another seven days whilst evidence is being gathered with respect to people being held under the SOE regulations.” He noted that people in illegal possession of firearms, ammunition, and explosives will be specifically targeted by police and soldiers.
“People who are found in the company of anyone with these items will also be detained,” Young added. “Over the last month or so and, in fact, building up to this, the government has been concerned about the use of high-powered illegal firearms.”
Young said that intelligence fed to the security council has indicated that there could be a series of retaliatory events involving gangs and other criminal elements. “We are seeing brazen behavior by these criminal elements in the use of illegal firearms, which necessitated the calling of this public state of emergency, [and] very clearly a continued level of planning and execution by the criminal element utilizing these illegal firearms,” he said. “In a nutshell, what the country is facing is a decision based on information about criminal activity — specifically, the use of high-powered and high-caliber weapons.”
Hinds said the SEO is “for the greater public good,” while Young noted that bail applications for those arrested by police or soldiers will be denied and so will habeas corpus efforts.
The SOE comes as preparations for general elections are being stepped up and opposition parties badger the government about its alleged incompetent handling of the situation.