00:00Speaking at a press briefing this morning at the Police Administration building in Port of Spain,
00:05Sgt. Wilson Jarville explained that there were three major gangs operating in this country.
00:11The TTPS has three major gangs on its radar and there are also different factions that are operating.
00:23And while he did not want to go on record and state the name of the operating gangs,
00:28he sought to give the assurance that all would be done to bring these priority offenders to justice.
00:34The TTPS has been involved in actively detaining persons pursuant to Regulation 14,
00:41which allows for the TTPS to detain persons who have acted, is acting, or intends to act in a manner that is prejudicial to public safety.
00:50He said that formal gangs operated with a structure which includes a power structure, a command structure, and an operational structure.
01:00In Trinidad and Tobago, we have about three major gangs which are formal in nature,
01:07and we have other informal gangs which are part of factions and may be associated with other major gangs.
01:15He also said that the TTPS was working with its international partners to treat with the issue of priority offenders
01:21who may have fled the country at the start of this state of emergency.
01:25And I am saying that the TTPS is using all of the powers that are available to it,
01:32pursuant to the emergency powers regulations, to actively target these gangs, their leaders, and their members.
01:41DCP Junior Benjamin noted that since the SOE was declared, the TTPS had conducted 1,455 operations which targeted 1,316 priority offenders.
01:53He says 8,706 searches were conducted and 1,142 persons were arrested.
02:01Benjamin also noted that there had been a drop in homicides, with 25 murders reported as of this morning,
02:06when compared to 37 for the same period last year.
02:10We are not satisfied because we believe that there is still the need for us to continue to push
02:16as we seek to at least reduce the number of homicides thus far.
02:22Benjamin also noted that there had been a significant decrease in home invasions this year,
02:27with 8 reported when compared to 46 incidents for the same period in 2024.
02:33As such, the police were seeing some positive results with the SOE
02:37and it gave the assurance that it would be ramping up patrols in the coming days to ensure that this success continues.
Comments