Benjamin: TTPS focusing on root causes of student fights

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor-Pol­i­tics

akash.sama­[email protected]

Po­lice are putting a greater em­pha­sis on so­cial in­ter­ven­tion and tack­ling the root caus­es of stu­dent vi­o­lence, as new po­lice da­ta shows re­port­ed fights in­volv­ing school­child­ren have in­creased from 27 in 2025 to at least 36 so far this year.

Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (Ad­min­is­tra­tion) Ju­nior Ben­jamin said the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) is analysing the fig­ures to iden­ti­fy pat­terns, in­clud­ing where fights are oc­cur­ring, as of­fi­cers in­creas­ing­ly find that con­fronta­tions are mov­ing away from school com­pounds and on­to sur­round­ing streets.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Ben­jamin said this could even­tu­al­ly re­quire greater po­lice vis­i­bil­i­ty along routes used by stu­dents, but stressed that the TTPS does not see in­creased en­force­ment as the pri­ma­ry so­lu­tion.

In­stead, he said po­lice in­tend to deep­en en­gage­ment with at-risk stu­dents, par­ents, teach­ers and prin­ci­pals to un­der­stand what is dri­ving vi­o­lent be­hav­iour.

“It’s about re­al­ly as­sess­ing what is the re­al heart of the prob­lem and ad­dress­ing those con­cerns,” Ben­jamin said.

He said po­lice have ob­served cas­es where dis­putes be­gin on­line be­tween stu­dents from dif­fer­ent schools be­fore es­ca­lat­ing in­to phys­i­cal con­fronta­tions when the groups meet.

Ben­jamin said in­ter­ven­tion must there­fore ex­tend be­yond polic­ing and in­to stu­dents’ homes.

“These youths are com­ing from homes,” he said, adding that par­ents must take their “right­ful place” in cor­rect­ing prob­lem­at­ic be­hav­iour.

He said the TTPS wants of­fi­cers to fo­cus on “vis­i­bil­i­ty, pre­ven­tion, en­gage­ment” and en­force­ment on­ly when nec­es­sary, ar­gu­ing that the ob­jec­tive should not be to crim­i­nalise chil­dren but to steer them to­wards be­com­ing pro­duc­tive cit­i­zens.

Ben­jamin al­so de­fend­ed the Po­lice in Schools ini­tia­tive, re­ject­ing the sug­ges­tion that the in­crease in re­port­ed fights meant the pro­gramme was fail­ing.

He said greater po­lice en­gage­ment in schools could ac­tu­al­ly be con­tribut­ing to in­creased re­port­ing, as in­ci­dents which pre­vi­ous­ly went un­re­port­ed are now reach­ing of­fi­cers.

The sta­tis­tics show mixed trends across school-re­lat­ed of­fences.

While re­port­ed fights in­creased from 27 to 36, weapons pos­ses­sion rose from six to eight cas­es and va­p­ing in­creased from 20 to 30.

How­ev­er, Ben­jamin said there were de­clines in sev­er­al oth­er cat­e­gories. As­saults linked to bul­ly­ing fell sharply from 16 cas­es in 2025 to six so far this year, while po­lice al­so record­ed de­clines in gam­bling and oth­er of­fences.

Ben­jamin cau­tioned that the po­lice fig­ures dif­fer from Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion sta­tis­tics be­cause they rep­re­sent in­ci­dents re­port­ed di­rect­ly to po­lice sta­tions or com­mu­ni­ty polic­ing of­fi­cers and can in­clude in­ci­dents oc­cur­ring both in­side and out­side schools.

He was al­so asked to weigh in on Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s re­cent con­tro­ver­sial back-to-school mes­sage that dis­rup­tive stu­dents who can­not be con­trolled should be sent home.

Ben­jamin said there must be room for dis­ci­pline and “tough love” in schools.

How­ev­er, he cau­tioned against dis­ci­pli­nary mea­sures leav­ing chil­dren with a neg­a­tive view of ed­u­ca­tion or push­ing them to­wards crim­i­nal­i­ty.

“They can make a mis­take. A mis­take should not be one that will cause them to have a lifestyle of crime,” Ben­jamin said.

He al­so backed the prin­ci­ple of hold­ing par­ents ac­count­able for their chil­dren’s be­hav­iour, as the Gov­ern­ment con­sid­ers leg­is­la­tion aimed at im­pos­ing greater re­spon­si­bil­i­ty on par­ents when their chil­dren en­gage in wrong­do­ing.

Ben­jamin said that while the pre­cise form of any leg­is­la­tion would have to be care­ful­ly con­sid­ered, parental ac­count­abil­i­ty was im­por­tant.

He said the TTPS ul­ti­mate­ly hopes its com­bi­na­tion of da­ta analy­sis, pre­ven­tion, so­cial in­ter­ven­tion and tar­get­ed en­force­ment will re­duce vi­o­lence and cre­ate a safer en­vi­ron­ment for stu­dents dur­ing the new aca­d­e­m­ic year.

RE­PORT­ED SCHOOL-RE­LAT­ED IN­CI­DENTS

OF­FENCE: 2025 2026

Fight­ing: 27 36

Va­p­ing: 20 30

Weapons: 6 8

As­sault by bul­ly­ing: 16 6