TTPS Western Division records 16% crime drop

Shane Su­perville

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­[email protected]

The West­ern Di­vi­sion of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has record­ed a de­cline in mur­ders and oth­er crimes so far this year, ac­cord­ing to head of di­vi­sion Snr Supt Sylvester Williams.

Re­fer­ring to da­ta gath­ered be­tween Jan­u­ary 1 and June 8, Williams said there was a 16 per cent re­duc­tion in Se­ri­ous Re­port­ed Crimes (SRCs). He said while 17 mur­ders were record­ed for the year thus far, there were 18 for the same pe­ri­od last year.

Williams re­vealed these sta­tis­tics at a po­lice me­dia brief­ing at the TTPS Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Sackville Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

The West­ern Di­vi­sion cov­ers Trinidad’s north-west­ern penin­su­la and con­sists of five sta­tion dis­tricts — St James, Care­nage, West End, Four Roads and Mar­aval. It is bor­dered to the east by the Port-of-Spain and North-East­ern Di­vi­sions.

De­spite the re­duc­tion in crime with­in his di­vi­sion, Williams was un­able to say ex­act­ly how the West­ern Di­vi­sion ranked in com­par­i­son to oth­er po­lice di­vi­sions in terms of mur­ders record­ed so far this year.

“What I can say is in terms of mur­ders, we have much less than oth­er di­vi­sions. Dif­fer­ent di­vi­sions have dif­fer­ent num­bers of mur­ders, so it wouldn’t be ap­pro­pri­ate for me to just give a fig­ure; it would be di­vi­sion by di­vi­sion.”

For the year, there have been three sep­a­rate in­stances of dou­ble mur­ders in the West­ern Di­vi­sion.

On Jan­u­ary 5, 24-year-old Jair Gilkes and 21-year-old Miguel Joseph were shot and killed near the com­mu­ni­ty cen­tre at Belle Vue, St James. More than a month lat­er, on Feb­ru­ary 21, Mar­cus Best, 31, and Chris­t­ian Achille, 53, were gunned down at Joe’s Au­to Parts and Garage on Sea Trace, Bagatelle. In the most re­cent in­ci­dent, Joseph Sut­ton and his 11-month-old son Jay­den Sut­ton were shot and killed as they slept in their Dun­don­ald Hill, St James, home on the night of March 31.

When asked about these in­ci­dents in re­la­tion to the da­ta shared, Williams ac­knowl­edged that gang vi­o­lence played a role in the mur­ders and shoot­ings re­port­ed.

He said while sev­er­al gang mem­bers have been ar­rest­ed, they were not held on charges for gang mem­ber­ship.

“We have held them for oth­er se­ri­ous crimes. In fact, we are still in­ves­ti­gat­ing with the view of hav­ing charges laid against some of these gang mem­bers for gang of­fences.”

When asked how many gang mem­bers have been held, Williams said these fig­ures were not avail­able but would be pro­vid­ed through the TTPS Cor­po­rate Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Unit.

Williams re­port­ed that 33 guns have been seized for the year, which he de­scribed as a par­tic­u­lar­ly sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone, as it was the high­est num­ber of guns found and seized with­in a sin­gle di­vi­sion so far this year.

When asked about the preva­lence of high-cal­i­bre weapons used in the dou­ble mur­ders with­in the di­vi­sion, Williams said that while he could not dis­ag­gre­gate the type of firearms seized in the West­ern Di­vi­sion, the re­trieval of il­le­gal guns re­mained a key part of crime sup­pres­sion ac­tiv­i­ties.

“We would con­tin­ue in our ef­forts to find and seize as much firearms as we can pos­si­bly find. We recog­nise that most of the mur­ders, wound­ings and shoot­ings, firearms have been the weapon of choice, so a lot of em­pha­sis is be­ing placed on re­mov­ing those firearms and am­mu­ni­tion from the streets.”

In terms of shoot­ings and wound­ings, there was a 25 per cent drop, with 15 in 2026 com­pared to 76 last year. Lar­ce­nies of mo­tor ve­hi­cles al­so dropped by 25 per cent this year, and gen­er­al lar­ce­nies al­so dropped by 12 per cent.

There was al­so a re­port­ed 600 per cent drop in lar­ce­ny dwelling house, with 60 re­port­ed in 2025 and ze­ro re­port­ed in 2026.

With­in the West­ern Di­vi­sion alone, he said 24 Pre­ven­ta­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs) have been is­sued, 20 of which have al­ready been ex­e­cut­ed.

He, how­ev­er, ac­knowl­edged that three cat­e­gories of crimes — kid­nap­pings, break-ins and fraud — were on the rise.

“With re­spect to kid­nap­pings, in most in­stances, ar­rests have al­ready been made. The break­ing of­fences oc­curred pre­dom­i­nant­ly in the St James and West End Po­lice Dis­tricts. A sus­pect who we be­lieve is re­spon­si­ble for most of the St James break-ins is in fact in cus­tody at this time, while a crime plan has re­cent­ly been launched in the West End dis­trict, with the in­put from com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers.”

West­ern Di­vi­sion Crime Sta­tis­tics (Jan­u­ary 1-June 8)

* Se­ri­ous Re­port­ed Crimes (SRCs): ↓ 16%

* Mur­ders: 17 (down from 18 in 2025)

*Dou­ble mur­ders: 3 in­ci­dents

* Shoot­ings and wound­ings: 15 (down from 76 in 2025)

* Mo­tor ve­hi­cle lar­ce­nies: ↓ 25%

* Gen­er­al lar­ce­nies: ↓ 12%

* Lar­ce­ny dwelling house: 0 cas­es (down from 60 in 2025)

* Il­le­gal firearms seized: 33 (high­est by any TTPS di­vi­sion so far this year)

* Pre­ven­ta­tive De­ten­tion Or­ders (PDOs): 24 is­sued, 20 ex­e­cut­ed

Crimes on the Rise

* Kid­nap­pings

* Break-ins

* Fraud