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Experts believe TT governments have been using states of emergency as a crime-fighting tool rather than to deal with real emergencies in the country.
While legal, according to the country’s Constitution, they say TT should be cautious of its use, as there will always be repercussions to proclaiming a state of emergency (SoE).
In May, in two separate court rulings in Jamaica and Belize, judges declared the proclamation of previous SoEs in those countries as unconstitutional.
The judge of the High Court of Justice in Belize, Trinidadian Justice Nadine Nabbie, who previously worked as a senior attorney in the Solicitor General's Department, summed it up by saying, “The use of the public emergency laws must be reserved for more extreme and extraordinary conditions and ought not to be used as a crime-fighting tool unless the criminal activities are of such a nature to cause civil disorder which prevents the government from ensuring the safety of the citizenry.”
Criminologist Darius Figueira said, that unlike TT, the constitutions of Belize and Jamaica allow for a state of emergency to be declared in a defined area within the country. He explained that, in those countries, SoEs were often a knee-jerk reaction to gun violence.
“The politicians have adopted this knee-jerk approach to gun violence, at levels which take place in TT and we don’t call any SoE.”
He said both the Belizean and Jamaican governments tend to declare SoEs at the early signs of violence, imposing curfews and locking down areas while police and army officers detain those they suspect to be perpetrators, usually in impoverished communities.
[caption id="attachment_1156976" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Soldiers deployed during a state of emergency in Jamaica. -[/caption]
“In Jamaica, (Prime Minister Andrew) Holness came up with this idea to combine the SoE with intervention programmes in the communities that look towards solving the social problems of the space under the SoE.
“The research has shown that this has failed miserably and all that happens in the SoE is that the gunmen simply migrate out of the space and, if they feel like it, they start the violence where there is no SoE.”
Figueira said these countries experienced economic dislocation, constant reports of police malfeasance, aggravated breaches of the rights of citizens, and extrajudicial killings.
He said politicians use SoEs to “pick low-hanging fruit” rather than going after the leaders of criminal organisations or addressing major issues such as the drug or gun trade, or especially in the case of Jamaica, political violence.
“The legal concept for it in North Atlantic law is a state of exception. Using a state of exception as a crime-fighting tool is outside the Constitution. Now the government will have to appeal that all the way to, in the case of Belize it’s the Caribbean Court of Justice and in the case of Jamaica, the Privy Council.”
In contrast, he said, because the TT Constitution only allowed for a national SoE, any declaration would disrupt the entire country, so the government would need to be prepared for pushback unless the reasoning was convincing enough.
Gang killings suppressed
Section 8(2) of the TT Constitution says an SoE may be enacted if the President is satisfied action 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.
The most recent SoE was declared on December 30, 2024, following the murder of seven people in three days in Port of Spain and 15 the week before during a gang war. It also followed the brazen gun attack outside the Besson Street Police Station, where gunmen hid in a panel van opposite the station, and opened fire with automatic high-powered rifles on a group of men who exited the station. One man was killed and another injured in that shooting which sent police officers scampering. Then acting attorney general Stuart Young said the government was concerned about possible reprisals that could cause more deaths and endanger the public.
Figueira described the SoE as a joke, pointing out there were no restrictions on the movement of people and, as people were free to go about their business, there were few complaints. Police powers of search and detainment without warrant were in effect, but there was no curfew, no restriction on public gatherings, marches or meetings.
[caption id="attachment_1156891" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Police officers on patrol in Arima during the state of emergency in 2011. -[/caption]
“That was a SoE called for political purposes. It would have been bad politics to go into an election campaign with the killings going on.
“So they called the SoE and locked up all of the walking dead – those with bounties on their heads – and put them in jail where the killers couldn’t reach them. So the violence dissipated.”
He said while those detained could sue the State for unlawful detention and win, it was difficult to challenge the SoE itself.
“It is easy to challenge in a limited state because it is not the whole society. What is relevant in evidence is what is happening in that small space. For you to discredit it in a national condition you have to come real good because all the government has to show you is the runaway murder figures.
“Under our constitution, as long as the Executive has the power to say, ‘It is a threat to national security,’ or ‘gang violence,’ that can trigger the state of exception.”
He said both former prime minister Dr Rowley and PM Kamla Persad-Bissessar used SoEs to fight crime and he expected future governments to do the same. Persad-Bissessar declared a SoE in August 2011, which targeted crime “hot spots,” after 11 people were killed in one weekend. There was a reported assassination plot against her where 17 people were detained and later released.
Hundreds of young men arrested and charged for gang-related activity were released after the DPP intervened on the basis of a lack of credible evidence. An avalanche of lawsuits led to the State compensating the suspects in the millions.
Band-aid for crime
Criminologist Dr Randy Seepersad agreed governments had been using SoEs as a crime-fighting tool, although he believed an escalating crime situation did not necessarily constitute a national emergency.
He said some detainees were people who may have been involved in crime but against whom the State had no evidence or witness willing to testify. These people could then successfully sue the state for millions of dollars once the SoE is lifted.
“While I recognise what the government was trying to do under the SoE, it doesn’t solve the problem. It’s nothing but a stop-gap or a band-aid which could actually lead to further problems that contribute to the erosion of the legitimacy of the criminal justice system.”
He said even if the murder rate declined during an SoE, the outcome of successful lawsuits would lead the public to believe the criminal justice system was powerless and desperate.
There could also be other, unintended effects. Seepersad said statistics from the police's Crime and Problem Analysis Branch showed that 2012 had the highest number of reports of sexual offences in TT history. He strongly suspected this was a result of the 2011 SoE as perpetrators of such offences were often known to the victims and, with the curfew, the victims were locked up with their attackers for the latter part of 2011.
“We have to look at the unintended consequences of SoEs, especially when they don’t really solve the problem in a long-term, sustainable way because, when somebody’s a victim of sexual violence, sometimes it’s not something you can ever overcome. It changes you.”
Intelligence key tool
Former commissioner of police Gary Griffith said the last three SoEs – in 2011, 2021 and 2024 – were declared legitimately, but he maintained a SoE should not be used as a crime-fighting tool.
[caption id="attachment_1156894" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Gary Grittith during his stint as CoP during 2018-2021. -[/caption]
“If you do that it indicates the state has reached a point that it’s unable to provide the necessary security for the nation, and they have to use an avenue that should not be used as a crime-fighting tool, as was done in 2011 and 2024.”
He said the only significant difference during the last SoE was it allowed police to enter homes without warrants and detain people indefinitely, a sign that the police lacked proper intelligence. He said it proved the need for a National Operations Centre which coordinated intelligence from different agencies, and which was shut down by the PNM administration.
He also agreed with Figueira that the 2024 SoE was meant to reduce crime before the general election.
“So what we should focus on, is not to cheat and have persons held indefinitely without due process, but having proper intelligence to ensure they have what is required for the proper authority for a warrant and to charge persons, and not try to use the SoE.”
Griffith said during his tenure as national security minister and police commissioner, he used national security alert levels to strengthen operational capacity without declaring an SoE. He said the levels allowed for increasing the strength of law enforcement and its operational capacity based on the threat through intensified patrols, roadblocks and operations, and the Defence Force could be brought in to assist the police.
“You should not need to have a proclamation to allow the law enforcement agencies to do their jobs better.”
In addition, he expressed gratitude that SoEs had not been used to target political opponents – with the possible exception of 1995 when then-Speaker Occah Seapaul was put under house arrest at her residence in St Clair.
“A PM has the authority to call a SoE. If the commissioner of police and the President are political puppets of the state, they can easily be manipulated to have everybody in the opposition arrested and held indefinitely if the PM wants. It’s as dangerous as that. Thankfully, we haven’t seen any PM anywhere near that kind of dictatorship.”
He said SoEs could affect trade, investments and the country’s international reputation, and expressed concerns about rogue police officers using the powers to settle personal scores by harassing or detaining people, as Figueira said happened in Jamaica and Belize.
Latest SoE gains
At a police media briefing on April 15, acting police commissioner Junior Benjamin said the 2024/2025 SoE was a "true success."
“Intelligence that was gathered suggested that there would be reprisal killings as it relates to gang warfare.
“When we look at our results at this time, we can say that we were able to avert those things because of the SoE and, above all, because of a strong team spirit within the TTPS.”
“I want to commend one the hard-working officers of the TTPS.
“We were able to deploy the necessary resources, both physical and human resources to the right places. We were able to have targeted operations and also accurate intelligence.
Operations - 5,192
Searches - 36,000
Priority offenders targeted - 3,561
Arrests - 4,038
Charges - 1,590 (835 for serious crimes, 429 for minor crimes and 326 for minor offences)
People charged who were held under the authority of a Preventive Detention Order during the SoE - 14 of 53
Traffic offences detected - 17,635
Guns found - 205
Ammunition found - 4,364
Marijuana seized - 1,757 kg
Cocaine seized - 189 kg
 
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