Tobago J’ouvert ends without arrests, serious incidents

To­ba­go Car­ni­val’s J’ou­vert cel­e­bra­tions end­ed with­out any ar­rests or se­ri­ous in­ci­dents on Sat­ur­day morn­ing, with po­lice re­port­ing a large­ly in­ci­dent-free start to the fes­tiv­i­ties.

The cel­e­bra­tions ran from 4 am to 10 am, as rev­ellers took to the streets with paint, mud and oil.

In a state­ment, the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) said of­fi­cers main­tained a high­ly vis­i­ble pres­ence through­out the com­pe­ti­tion and pa­rade ar­eas.

How­ev­er, one in­ci­dent was record­ed along Wil­son Road, Scar­bor­ough, where a marked po­lice ve­hi­cle al­leged­ly col­lid­ed with a 40-year-old To­ba­go Fes­ti­vals Com­mis­sion em­ploy­ee from Bon Ac­cord.

The in­ci­dent oc­curred as the ve­hi­cle was trav­el­ling north along Wil­son Road.

The man was tak­en for med­ical at­ten­tion and is re­port­ed to have sus­tained mi­nor in­juries. The ac­ci­dent is un­der in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (Op­er­a­tions) Suzette Mar­tin were among se­nior of­fi­cers on the ground through­out the morn­ing.

Gue­var­ro was al­so seen walk­ing along the pa­rade routes, in­ter­act­ing with of­fi­cers and rev­ellers.

The po­lice en­tourage in­clud­ed As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er Anand Rame­sar, Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dents Clint Arthur and Ro­hdill Kirk, Su­per­in­ten­dent Mark Joseph and of­fi­cers of the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion.

The Com­mis­sion­er al­so vis­it­ed the Shir­van Road Po­lice Sta­tion and the Ply­mouth Mi­cro Po­lice Unit, where he in­ter­act­ed with of­fi­cers on du­ty.

The polic­ing op­er­a­tion in­volved of­fi­cers from the In­ter-Agency Task Force, Guard and Emer­gency Branch and To­ba­go Di­vi­sion.

They were sup­port­ed by sea pa­trols from the Coastal Sup­port Unit, un­der the com­mand of Act­ing As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent Ron­nie Ram­pal­ad, as well as air sup­port.

The TTPS said of­fi­cers would main­tain their pres­ence through­out the re­main­der of the Car­ni­val cel­e­bra­tions, in­clud­ing the Pa­rade of the Bands and oth­er sched­uled events.

The Ser­vice thanked rev­ellers, vis­i­tors and mem­bers of the pub­lic for com­ply­ing with the law and urged them to con­tin­ue ex­er­cis­ing safe­ty pre­cau­tions.