Senior Reporter
anna-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt
Despite recording seven homicides over the four days of Carnival celebrations between March 1-4, acting Commissioner of Police (CoP) Junior Benjamin has declared Carnival 2025 a “generally safe” one.
Making the statement during a media briefing at the Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain, yesterday, he attributed the successful hosting of the revelry to the hard work of law enforcement personnel.
He said, “Our officers showed up and we were able to have a generally safe Carnival 2025.”
This, although Venezuelan national Irvin Joaquin Mayora, 30, died following a shooting at Vidale Street and Western Main Road, St James, around 5.15 pm during celebrations on Carnival Tuesday. Prince Charles, 18, of Guaico, Sangre Grande, also died after being stabbed once in the chest by a 57-year-old suspect during an altercation while out with friends for Last Lap.
In both instances, the suspects were held.
Extending condolences to the families of the seven victims—Benjamin said with 66 murders to date, compared to 95 in 2024, and 111 in 2023 for the same period – this represented a 31 per cent decline in homicides.
Even though he said the numbers showed that policing strategies were working, Benjamin said they were not satisfied, as one murder was too much. He thanked the public for partnering with the police to again make T&T safe.
Echoing similar sentiments, acting Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Operations, Curt Simon said the public feedback had been positive regarding both the hosting of Carnival as well as the ongoing State of Emergency (SoE).
He said they executed 47 operations over the 48-hour period spanning Monday and Tuesday as part of the SoE, describing this as a “unique” development, as officers also remained on Carnival duty.
In addition, he revealed that the authorities had managed to secure 54 detention orders for people in custody, up from 38 last Friday.
He said this was an indication that law enforcement officials were ramping up efforts as the SoE continued.
Simon also agreed that the seven murders between Friday and Tuesday were disheartening, but assured that additional security layers were being put in place to help curb the murder toll.
He said while it was less than what citizens had grown accustomed to, the police were still not happy with the current statistics.
Home invasions on the decline
Meanwhile, the acting CoP said the police service has noted a decline in home invasions.
He revealed, “We have seen a 74 per cent reduction in terms of our home invasions.”
With 103 home invasions recorded in 2024 and 27 thus far for 2025, he said, “There is some slight upticks when we look at those stats as it relates to the number of home invasions that results in at least, homicides. We had three in 2025 and about seven in 2024, so it means therefore that this is something we would want to look at and see how we can do some target hardening.”
He appealed to landlords to ensure more stringent checks are carried out on potential tenants.
“We want to encourage persons where you might have tenants and you have not done a proper background check, please, please, we want to encourage you to do proper background checks on these tenants to ensure that you know the persons that you are at least bringing in to your home space. Because as we look at some of these crimes that we are seeing taking place, we believe that if persons continue to do that type of background check, probably it can even help in ensuring your safety and the safety of others.”