TTPS warns public over rise in online threats

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has is­sued a warn­ing to the pub­lic af­ter the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice re­port­ed an in­crease in on­line posts con­tain­ing threats of vi­o­lence, in­clud­ing threats aimed at pub­lic of­fi­cials.

In a state­ment, Com­mis­sion­er Gue­var­ro said the TTPS has tak­en note of so­cial me­dia users who have is­sued threats against in­di­vid­u­als and groups. He said free­dom of ex­pres­sion al­lows cit­i­zens to share views, but that right does not cov­er con­duct that cross­es in­to crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty. He re­mind­ed the pub­lic that no per­son is per­mit­ted to in­cite vi­o­lence, in­tim­i­date oth­ers, or use dig­i­tal plat­forms to is­sue threats.

Gue­var­ro point­ed to the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions 2025, not­ing that para­graph 2 of the Sched­ule grants the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty the au­thor­i­ty to is­sue a Pre­ven­tive De­ten­tion Or­der. He said this may be ap­plied to per­sons whose on­line ac­tiv­i­ty in­cites vi­o­lence, en­cour­ages in­ter­fer­ence, or places na­tion­al safe­ty at risk.

Ac­cord­ing to Com­mis­sion­er Gue­var­ro, the TTPS will take ac­tion against any­one who us­es so­cial me­dia or dig­i­tal plat­forms to is­sue threats or en­cour­age acts that can en­dan­ger oth­ers. He said the Cy­ber and So­cial Me­dia Unit con­tin­ues to mon­i­tor these in­ci­dents, and once ev­i­dence is gath­ered, of­fend­ers will be iden­ti­fied and brought be­fore the court.

Com­mis­sion­er Gue­var­ro urged cit­i­zens to act re­spon­si­bly when us­ing on­line plat­forms. He said per­sons should share opin­ions with­in the lim­its of the law and avoid con­duct that can lead to ar­rest. He re­mind­ed the pub­lic that on­line posts car­ry con­se­quences and that per­sons who is­sue threats will be held ac­count­able.