What the new State of Emergency regulations mean for you

Trinidad and To­ba­go is again un­der a State of Emer­gency, with the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2026, Le­gal No­tice No. 40 of 2026, now in force.

While there is no cur­few at this time, the reg­u­la­tions grant sweep­ing pow­ers that could af­fect so­cial me­dia use, protests, po­lice search­es and de­ten­tion.

So­cial me­dia and pub­lic state­ments

The reg­u­la­tions do not specif­i­cal­ly men­tion “so­cial me­dia”, but they con­tain broad lan­guage that can ap­ply to on­line plat­forms.

It is an of­fence to en­deav­our—oral­ly or oth­er­wise—to in­flu­ence pub­lic opin­ion in a man­ner like­ly to be prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty. That word­ing can ex­tend to posts, videos or mes­sages shared on­line.

It is al­so an of­fence to have any ar­ti­cle in your pos­ses­sion with the in­tent of mak­ing or fa­cil­i­tat­ing such an en­deav­our. An ar­ti­cle could in­clude a mo­bile phone, com­put­er or oth­er elec­tron­ic de­vice.

The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice may im­pose re­stric­tions on any per­son re­gard­ing their as­so­ci­a­tion or com­mu­ni­ca­tion with oth­er per­sons. The Pres­i­dent al­so may make Or­ders au­tho­ris­ing the search of com­put­ers and elec­tron­ic de­vices seized by po­lice.

Protests, gath­er­ings and move­ment

Al­though the word “protest” does not ap­pear in the reg­u­la­tions, the pow­ers grant­ed can af­fect pub­lic demon­stra­tions and gath­er­ings.

The Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice may re­strict a per­son’s as­so­ci­a­tion with oth­ers and can re­quire a per­son to leave a spe­cif­ic place or pro­hib­it them from en­ter­ing cer­tain ar­eas.

Any lo­ca­tion can be des­ig­nat­ed a “pro­tect­ed place”. En­ter­ing such a place with­out au­tho­ri­sa­tion is an of­fence, and po­lice may search or re­move any­one found there.

The same pub­lic safe­ty of­fence re­lat­ing to in­flu­enc­ing pub­lic opin­ion could ap­ply to speech­es or or­gan­ised ef­forts dur­ing a protest.

War­rant­less search­es and po­lice pow­ers

Po­lice have ex­pand­ed pow­ers to act with­out a war­rant.

An of­fi­cer may en­ter and search any premis­es if they sus­pect that ev­i­dence of an of­fence un­der the reg­u­la­tions is like­ly to be found. Of­fi­cers may use force, if nec­es­sary, to gain en­try.

Po­lice al­so may stop and search in­di­vid­u­als, ve­hi­cles or ves­sels, whether in a pub­lic place or not.

A po­lice of­fi­cer may ar­rest a per­son with­out a war­rant if the of­fi­cer sus­pects the per­son has act­ed, is act­ing, or is about to act in a man­ner prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty. Any­one dri­ving a ve­hi­cle must stop when re­quired to do so by a uni­formed of­fi­cer.

Mem­bers of the De­fence Force may be called out to as­sist the po­lice and, when do­ing so, have the same pow­ers as a po­lice of­fi­cer.

De­ten­tion, bail and penal­ties

The Min­is­ter may or­der pre­ven­tive de­ten­tion to pre­vent a per­son from act­ing in a man­ner prej­u­di­cial to pub­lic safe­ty. A de­tained per­son can be held in a place and un­der con­di­tions di­rect­ed by the Min­is­ter.

Per­sons de­tained un­der the reg­u­la­tions or charged with an of­fence where there is an ap­pre­hen­sion they might in­cite breach­es of the peace, can be de­nied bail. In such cas­es, the writ of habeas cor­pus does not lie, and judges can­not ex­er­cise ju­ris­dic­tion to grant bail.

Of­fences un­der the reg­u­la­tions car­ry a fine of $100,000 and im­pris­on­ment for five years.

Cur­few frame­work

There is no cur­few in place at this time. How­ev­er, the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice is au­tho­rised to pro­hib­it per­sons from be­ing out of doors dur­ing spec­i­fied hours.

If a cur­few is im­posed, per­sons would be al­lowed out­side dur­ing those hours on­ly with a writ­ten per­mit. The Com­mis­sion­er can al­so re­quire in­di­vid­u­als to no­ti­fy a spec­i­fied au­thor­i­ty of their move­ments at par­tic­u­lar times.

The reg­u­la­tions took ef­fect up­on pub­li­ca­tion and re­main in force for the du­ra­tion of the State of Emer­gency un­less amend­ed or re­voked.