Trinidad and Tobago declared a state of emergency on Monday after a rise in murders by criminal groups.

This state of emergency police the power to search and arrest without a warrant for two days, but there are no curfews and the general public should not be affected.

Prime Minister Keith Rowley’s office said the declaration was based on advice from the police about increased criminal activity threatening public safety and not on any specific threat or public disorder.

“Based on the intelligence provided to us by the police service, that criminal gangs, via the use of high powered assault weapons and other illegal firearms in areas of Trinidad and possibly, Tobago are likely to immediately increase their brazen acts of violence in reprisal shootings on a scale so extensive that it threatens persons and will endanger public safety.”

Attorney General Stuart Young reported 61 murders in December, bringing the year’s total to 623. This is up from 577 in 2023 and 599 in 2022.

He explained the emergency does not impose a curfew or restrict movement, to avoid economic disruption. Judges may extend the search and arrest powers for up to seven days.

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds called the rise in violent murders an “epidemic,” with 551 shootings recorded by December 26.

This equates to a homicide rate exceeding 40 per 100,000 inhabitants. While this is among the highest in the world, it is surpassed by countries such as Jamaica, which had a rate of 53.34 per 100,000 in 2022. Both countries blame the number of murders on inter-gang warfare and on weapons illegally imported from the US.

Recent violent acts in Trinidad  include a man killed after leaving a Port of Spain police station and a shooting in Laventille that left five dead.

The last state of emergency for crime was in 2011, but it only targeted specific “hotspots.”

Sources: News Agencies, Trinidad Express, Trinidad and Tobago government press release.