The Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, 2026 has been passed in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives fol­low­ing a marathon sit­ting, with At­tor­ney Gen­er­al John Je­re­mie say­ing the Gov­ern­ment is not promis­ing per­fec­tion from its lat­est crime-fight­ing mea­sure but will con­sid­er it a suc­cess if it de­liv­ers a steady and sus­tained re­duc­tion in vi­o­lent crime.

The Gov­ern­ment is de­fend­ing the ex­tra­or­di­nary pow­ers con­tained in the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill, ar­gu­ing that the pub­lic’s in­ter­est in peace and or­der out­weighs any lim­it­ed in­fringe­ment of in­di­vid­ual rights and in­sist­ing the mea­sures are aimed sole­ly at what De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge de­scribed as the “ban­dit class.”

Port-of-Spain South MP Kei­th Scot­land has brand­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Bill a “sprawl­ing as­sault” on cit­i­zens’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights, warn­ing that it could trans­form Trinidad and To­ba­go in­to a “po­lice state” and sub­ject peo­ple liv­ing in crime-af­fect­ed com­mu­ni­ties to a less­er stan­dard of free­dom.

Op­po­si­tion Leader Pen­ne­lope Beck­les is call­ing on the Gov­ern­ment to clear­ly state its po­si­tion on body-worn cam­eras as Par­lia­ment de­bates leg­is­la­tion that would give po­lice ex­pand­ed search pow­ers dur­ing spe­cial op­er­a­tions.