00:00Commissioner of Police Alistair Guevara hit the ground running early on Carnival Monday,
00:05along with Deputy Commissioner of Police and Gold Commander for Carnival, Suzette Martin, and their teams.
00:11From the pre-dawn hours to when the sun began to put in its appearance,
00:16police units, including the mounted branch, were out in high visibility in downtown Port of Spain.
00:22Guevara addressed the media after the official opening of Carnival 2026
00:26as he signals his intention to visit most of the major Carnival events in the country.
00:32And it will be remiss of me not to reinforce the point and tell persons to keep their weapons at
00:38home.
00:38If you come into the areas where we are celebrating Carnival,
00:42the police will deal with it and will deal with it decisively.
00:45I'm also asking persons to kindly be aware of the amount of alcohol they consume.
00:50If you are drinking, please don't drive because you'll be spending the weekend with us.
00:54We have accommodation ready for you.
00:56All right?
00:58So, apart from that, good behavior, no glass bottles, and we're on the streets.
01:02Let us enjoy ourselves and let us have fun and we'll be there to protect the public.
01:05Guevara says the various arms of law enforcement are supporting the effort,
01:09including the Defense Force, the Fire Service, Customs, and Immigration.
01:15From information you received, has everything gone smoothly so far?
01:19Are any prisons...
01:21Thus far, knock on wood, I don't have any, but thus far everything is going according to plan.
01:27All right?
01:27I wouldn't want to give out too much of the police strategy, nor the operational situation that we have on
01:32hand,
01:32but thus far everything is going according to what we have planned,
01:35and the whole commander is, what should I say, in charge of the situation at this point in time.
01:42So we are monitoring what we have put in place.
01:45The top cop is calling on the public to work with police, reinforcing the TTPS's tagline,
01:51see something, say something.
01:54DCP Martin is pleading with people to celebrate responsibly and look out for one another,
02:00as they enjoy the festivities and unity that Carnival brings.
02:04She says TTPS officers are fully deployed.
02:07Now, I know that you all would have called out all police officers who were on vacation and everything.
02:12What is the strength of the force right now?
02:15So, the strength of our force, we have officers who weren't out of the country,
02:20or on vacation if you enter Antibagos, so they were called out.
02:24So I'm saying that we have 75% of our officers on duty for Carnival 2026.
02:31Martin is of the view that Carnival over the past few years has been safe.
02:35She reiterates that with the addition of the QR code each police officer has in their possession,
02:41the public can more easily access assistance when and if needed.
02:46So if someone cannot locate or get lost or need an emergency route or emergency number,
02:52they can reach out to any officer on duty and they'll be able to assist them.
02:56Alicia Boucher, TV6 News.
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