TTPS hosts ‘Carols and Cans’ outreach

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice, North­ern Di­vi­sion North, host­ed its first Christ­mas out­reach event “Car­ols and Cans” on Tues­day, as part of com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment ac­tiv­i­ties.

The event brought to­geth­er church­es, non-gov­ern­men­tal or­ga­ni­za­tions, Po­lice Youth Clubs, schools and mem­bers of the pub­lic. The pro­gramme in­clud­ed mu­sic, car­olling and a food col­lec­tion dri­ve.

Pro­ceed­ings opened with a parang pre­sen­ta­tion by stu­dents of the Ari­ma Boys’ RC School. This was fol­lowed by a skit from the La Hor­quet­ta Po­lice Youth Club, which ad­dressed per­son­al safe­ty prac­tices dur­ing the Christ­mas pe­ri­od.

Mu­si­cal items were al­so pre­sent­ed by the Mal­abar RC School and the Pin­to/San­ta Rosa and Orop­une Po­lice Youth Clubs. The pro­gramme con­tin­ued in­to the evening with fur­ther per­for­mances.

As part of the ini­tia­tive, of­fi­cers of North­ern Di­vi­sion North con­duct­ed a week-long food dri­ve. Non-per­ish­able items were col­lect­ed from TTPS of­fi­cers and in­vit­ed guests. The items are to be dis­trib­uted to per­sons with­in the com­mu­ni­ty.

Snr. Supt. North­ern Di­vi­sion North Sher­ma May­nard Wil­son said the event re­flect­ed co­op­er­a­tion be­tween the po­lice and the pub­lic. She said the ini­tia­tive fo­cused on shared re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and com­mu­ni­ty sup­port dur­ing the Christ­mas sea­son. She al­so said the food dri­ve al­lowed as­sis­tance to be pro­vid­ed to per­sons in need.

Those present in­clud­ed Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­vara, and Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (Op­er­a­tions) Suzette Mar­tin.

Al­so at­tend­ing were May­or of Ari­ma His Wor­ship Al­der­man Bal­li­ram Ma­haraj, the As­sis­tant Chief Fire Of­fi­cer, the Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer of the Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice, the Head of Mu­nic­i­pal Po­lice As­sis­tant Su­per­in­ten­dent of Po­lice, and a Lieu­tenant from the 1st En­gi­neer Bat­tal­ion of the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force.

The TTPS said sim­i­lar out­reach ac­tiv­i­ties are planned, with “Car­ols and Cans” ex­pect­ed to be held again in the fu­ture.