Caption: Kamla Persad-Bissessar

By Alicia Chamely

PRIME Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar is shutting down accusations that her government has no crime plan, saying the State of Emergency is the beginning of a strategic process to break down criminal syndicates.

She has also revealed the development of a crime prevention strategy spearheaded by the Commissioner of Police (CoP), Allister Guevarro.

Persad-Bissessar was speaking on Monday at an Extraordinary Sitting of Parliament to debate the declaration and three-month extension of the SoE held at the Red House, Port of Spain.

The SoE was declared on July 19 by President Christine Kangaloo under the advice of CoP Guevarro and the National Security Council.

Explaining the reasoning behind the SoE, Persad-Bissessar said, “On Thursday July 17, 2025, after our weekly Cabinet meeting, the National Security Council received a corroborated intelligence dossier from the Commissioner of Police. The dossier presented to me contained details of the names of conspirators, the gangs involved, the types of arms, weapons, and ammunition to be used, the list of assassination targets, the list of buildings to be targeted, and the details of how the plot was planned to be executed.”

Addressing the issue that much of the gang activity was happening within the prisons, she took aim at Member of Parliament for Port of Spain North/St. Ann’s West, Stuart Young, saying, “It was under MP Young as Minister of National Security that the PNM came up with the foolish idea of putting all the gang leaders together in one building where they ended up joining forces. Before that, they were held separately. The criminal syndicate we are now battling was formed due to the PNM and MP Young’s incompetence; the country has them to thank for what must be the worst mistake in the history of our national security.”

Persad-Bissessar said given the information a “State of Emergency was necessary to pre-empt these coordinated attacks and protect justice officials and innocent citizens. We did not hesitate.”

She said, “The choice before us was clear. Sit and wait until somebody is killed—just so no one could accuse us of acting “too early”, or move first, before blood is spilt.”

Addressing criticism and political commentary Persad-Bissessar said, “This SoE is the beginning of a strategic process.”

Persad-Bissessar said the government and the Commissioner of Police (CoP) had devised a strategic crime prevention plan that focused on the strengthening of the TTPS and community engagement.

She said initiatives laid out by the CoP would come into effect within “the next few days, weeks, and months.”

Discussing the plan, she said, “It provides a comprehensive structured and adaptable road map from TTPS to achieve operational excellence, crime reduction, enhance public trust and resource organization.”

She continued, “Through strategic alignment across leadership development, community engagement, crime suppression, technology integration and resource allocation. The plan establishes a modernised intelligent driven policing framework capable of addressing revolving security challenges.”

While she said she could not delve too much into the CoP’s plans she named a few initiatives that would be rolling out soon.

These included:

• The re-establishment of the Community Comfort Patrols, the re-establishment of the National Operations Centre (NOC);
• Strengthen investigative units with advanced forensic tools and surveillance capabilities;
• Implement rapid response strike teams focused on high priority criminal offenses including firearms trafficking, kidnappings and gang violence;
• Expand divisional crime analysis units to proactively map crime trends and guide enforcement strategies;
• Electronic monitoring of offenders;
• Judicial cooperation framework;
• Legal reforms that streamline prosecution process and enhance judicial efficiency in handling repeat offenders; and
• Manpower expansion in both the TTPS and Trinidad and Tobago Fire Services

Returning to her justification of the SOE, Persad-Bissessar said, “We chose prevention. That is responsibility. That is leadership.”