Maloney Buildings declared first closed area under Special Operations Act

Akash Sama­roo

Lead Ed­i­tor - Pol­i­tics

The Mal­oney Build­ings Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment has be­come the first com­mu­ni­ty to be de­clared a closed area un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, 2026, with res­i­dents now sub­ject to a night­ly cur­few be­tween 9 pm and 5 am.

The de­c­la­ra­tion was made by Pres­i­dent Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo through Le­gal No­tice No. 847, dat­ed No­vem­ber 10, while a sep­a­rate or­der, Le­gal No­tice No. 848, im­posed the cur­few on the com­mu­ni­ty.

How­ev­er, the move has al­ready sparked un­ease among res­i­dents, with Trinci­ty/Mal­oney MP Camille Robin­son-Reg­is ac­cus­ing the Gov­ern­ment of im­pos­ing re­stric­tions with­out ad­e­quate­ly in­form­ing those af­fect­ed.

"With­out a clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion to res­i­dents, Mal­oney is now un­der lock­down, leav­ing law-abid­ing cit­i­zens fright­ened, con­fused and un­sure whether they need per­mits sim­ply to get home," Robin­son-Reg­is said.

"I have re­ceived calls from res­i­dents in a state of pan­ic. Even the po­lice re­port­ed­ly do not have clear in­for­ma­tion on the process, yet res­i­dents are be­ing told the com­mu­ni­ty is locked down from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m."

There is a heavy po­lice pres­ence in the com­mu­ni­ty tonight, with mem­bers of the pub­lic re­port­ing that law en­force­ment of­fi­cers have blocked all roads lead­ing in­to and out of the hous­ing de­vel­op­ment.

There are al­so re­ports of po­lice us­ing a loud­speak­er to an­nounce the re­stric­tions to res­i­dents.

In a record­ing of the an­nounce­ment shared with Guardian Me­dia, a voice iden­ti­fy­ing it­self as the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice in­forms res­i­dents that their com­mu­ni­ty has been de­clared a closed area.

"Dur­ing these hours, all per­sons with­in the des­ig­nat­ed area must re­main in­side your premis­es un­less oth­er­wise legal­ly au­tho­rised, or with a valid cur­few per­mit," the an­nounce­ment states.

Res­i­dents are al­so be­ing urged to co­op­er­ate with po­lice of­fi­cers and fol­low all law­ful in­struc­tions.

Robin­son-Reg­is ques­tioned the cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing the de­ci­sion, draw­ing com­par­isons with oth­er re­cent in­ci­dents of vi­o­lent crime.

"A mur­der oc­curred in Cou­va yes­ter­day, yet no com­pa­ra­ble lock­down. A shoot­ing in Mal­oney, with no fa­tal­i­ties, and an en­tire com­mu­ni­ty is placed un­der re­stric­tions," she said.

The MP ar­gued that while pub­lic safe­ty was im­por­tant, the Gov­ern­ment had a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to pro­tect cit­i­zens' con­sti­tu­tion­al rights.

"Gov­ern­ment can­not use na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty as an ex­cuse to dis­re­gard peo­ple's rights, dig­ni­ty and free­dom of move­ment. Res­i­dents de­serve an­swers, clear com­mu­ni­ca­tion and an ex­pla­na­tion. You can­not keep peo­ple in the dark and ex­pect them to sim­ply ac­cept it."

She added, "Pub­lic safe­ty mat­ters, but so do the rights of the peo­ple we are elect­ed to serve."

The de­vel­op­ment was al­so high­light­ed by Laven­tille West MP Ka­reem Mar­celle, who an­nounced the mea­sures in a Face­book post tonight.

"Kam­la/UNC has made Mal­oney Build­ings De­vel­op­ment a CLOSED AREA with im­me­di­ate ef­fect," Mar­celle wrote.

The or­ders rep­re­sent the first re­port­ed use of the closed-area pro­vi­sions un­der the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Act, which was passed in Par­lia­ment in Sep­tem­ber and pro­claimed in Oc­to­ber.

Un­der Sec­tion 11 of the leg­is­la­tion, the Pres­i­dent may de­clare an area with­in a polic­ing dis­trict a closed area where there are rea­son­able grounds to be­lieve that pub­lic safe­ty and peace are threat­ened by es­ca­lat­ing vi­o­lent crime, in­clud­ing mur­ders, shoot­ings, kid­nap­pings or gang-re­lat­ed ac­tiv­i­ty.

The law al­so iden­ti­fies the preva­lence of il­le­gal firearms, am­mu­ni­tion, weapons or ex­plo­sives, as well as gang con­trol or in­tim­i­da­tion of com­mu­ni­ties, as grounds for such a de­c­la­ra­tion.

How­ev­er, the leg­is­la­tion re­quires that or­di­nary law en­force­ment mea­sures be in­suf­fi­cient to main­tain or re­store pub­lic safe­ty and peace in the af­fect­ed area.

In the case of Mal­oney, the or­der states that the Pres­i­dent was sat­is­fied, on rea­son­able grounds, that pub­lic safe­ty and peace with­in the area, which falls un­der Polic­ing Dis­trict Two, were threat­ened.

The gazetted or­der does not iden­ti­fy spe­cif­ic crim­i­nal in­ci­dents or pro­vide de­tailed ev­i­dence sup­port­ing the de­c­la­ra­tion.

Un­der Sec­tion 14, peo­ple with­in a des­ig­nat­ed closed area can be re­quired to re­main in­side their premis­es dur­ing spec­i­fied hours un­less oth­er­wise au­tho­rised by the or­der or grant­ed a per­mit.

For Mal­oney res­i­dents, this means re­main­ing in­doors be­tween 9 pm and 5 am un­less an ex­emp­tion or per­mit ap­plies.

The de­c­la­ra­tion is con­fined to the Mal­oney Build­ings Hous­ing De­vel­op­ment in Mal­oney Gar­dens and does not ex­tend to the en­tire Mal­oney com­mu­ni­ty.

Both or­ders were is­sued un­der pro­vi­sions al­low­ing the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives to re­voke them through a neg­a­tive res­o­lu­tion.

On Mon­day there were sev­er­al shoot­ings in the Mal­oney Build­ings com­mu­ni­ty.