Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar SC has stated that she will only authorise policing operations under the proposed Special Operations Bill in the 26 UNC-held constituencies, 70 UNC-held local government electoral districts and two Tobago People’s Party (TPP)-held constituencies.
The Prime Minister, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly this week, made the statement in response to criticism from the People’s National Movement (PNM) and its supporters over the legislation, which would establish seven policing districts — six in Trinidad and one in Tobago — as a framework for special operations to combat criminality.
In her statement on Monday, the Prime Minister said any operations in the TPP-held constituencies would be authorised only after consultation with Tobago Chief Secretary Farley Augustine.
She also accused PNM MPs, councillors and supporters of opposing the legislation, which passed in the Lower House on Saturday after a marathon debate.
“The PNM MPs, councillors and supporters are clearly against the Special Operations Bill. The PNM-represented constituencies clearly prefer to be controlled by violent criminal gangs and the local drug mafia instead of being protected by law enforcement. Therefore, I will only authorise special operations in the 26 UNC-held constituencies, 70 UNC-held local government electoral districts and in the two TPP-held constituencies after consultation with Chief Secretary Farley Augustine.”
Responding to what she described as claims that the legislation would result in police and army personnel being sent into PNM constituencies to “terrorise” supporters, the Prime Minister said she would not force communities to accept assistance if they did not want it.
“I am not begging to help any community become safer if it doesn’t want to be helped.”
The Prime Minister defended the Bill, saying law-abiding citizens had been terrorised by violent criminal gangs for three decades and had been forced to rely on burglar-proofing, security cameras, tall gates and guard dogs because of the threat of violent home invasions.
“Mothers and daughters have been raped in their own beds, fathers and sons beaten, and our elderly tortured by these violent criminals.”
She warned violent criminal gangs and drug lords operating in UNC-controlled constituencies and Local Government electoral districts that they will be subject to what she described as “hard policing” under the proposed legislation.
However, she insisted: “The PNM are free to continue to allow their constituencies to be overrun by violent criminal gangs. They are free to allow the local drug mafia financiers to flood their constituencies with deadly drugs that poison their children and destroy their futures. It is their democratic choice to allow themselves to be destroyed from within.”
The Special Operations Bill, 2026, goes to the Senate on Tuesday for debate.