DCP Benjamin says police will do their jobs, ZOSO or not

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice in charge of Ad­min­is­tra­tion Ju­nior Ben­jamin says the de­feat of a bill in­tend­ed to in­tro­duce Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions (ZOSOs) in com­mu­ni­ties across Trinidad and To­ba­go has not dis­cour­aged the po­lice, as of­fi­cers in­tend to con­tin­ue reg­u­lar an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions.

The Law Re­form (Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions) Spe­cial Se­cu­ri­ty and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment 2026 Bill, which re­quired a three-fifths ma­jor­i­ty for pas­sage, did not re­ceive sup­port from a sin­gle In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor last night. The Gov­ern­ment need­ed at least four In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors to sup­port the leg­is­la­tion for its pas­sage.

Speak­ing dur­ing a po­lice me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing on Sackville Street, Port of Spain, this af­ter­noon, Ben­jamin said the out­come did not af­fect the po­lice’s abil­i­ty to ful­fil its du­ties.

“The TTPS has al­ways been in­volved in crime pre­ven­tion, crime de­tec­tion and crime con­vic­tion strate­gies.

“These strate­gies have al­ways been part and par­cel of what we do on a reg­u­lar ba­sis.

“So there­fore the Bill be­ing passed (or not) does not negate what we do. We have a strate­gic plan, an op­er­a­tional plan.”

Ben­jamin said he was con­fi­dent in the abil­i­ty of Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro to en­sure the vi­sion of the TTPS and was op­ti­mistic that 2026 would be one of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s safest years.