Trinidad and Tobago declares state of emergency over gang violence

Trinidad and Tobago declared a state of emergency on Monday due to a spike in murders by criminal gangs, a move that gives police the ability to carry out warrantless searches and arrests over the next two days.

“The circumstances justifying the declaration of a state of emergency are based on advice from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service to the National Security Council of increased criminal activity that threatens public safety,” Prime Minister Keith Rowley’s office said.

Attorney General Stuart Young said the country recorded 61 murders in December, bringing the total for the year to 623, up from 577 in 2023 and 599 in 2022.

Young, speaking at a news conference in the capital Port of Spain, said the state of public emergency would not include a curfew or restrict people’s movement, to minimize the economic impact of the declaration.

The authority for police to conduct searches and arrests without a warrant can be extended by a judge for up to seven days, Young said.

At the same press conference, Homeland Security Secretary Fitzgerald Hinds called the rise in violent killings an “epidemic” for the country of 1.4 million people, with 551 shootings recorded this year as of Dec. 26.

Recent incidents of violence included a man shot and killed after leaving a police station in Port of Spain on Saturday, and a shooting in Laventille, Trinidad, on Sunday that killed five.

For the same reason, a state of emergency was previously declared in 2011, but its application was limited to “hotspots” of crime.