Guns for off-duty Trinidad cops

(Trinidad Express) Off-duty officers will soon be allowed to go home with their firearms, Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro has said.

He said yesterday that the move was part of a policy shift aimed at strengthening the operational capacity of the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) and ensuring the safety of law enforcement personnel at all times.

“It is my intention to institute an off-duty firearm policy where I will be arming all of my frontline, tactical, and operational officers,” he said. “In the past, even after they treat with a criminal, they would have to sign off their weapons. Well let me tell allyuh, my officers will not have to sign off their guns again,” he said while speaking on TV6’s Beyond the Tape programme.

 

 

 

Guevarro said the policy would apply to officers already assigned to critical operational roles and who may be at risk even when not on duty.

On Thursday, he said he visited the TTPS Armoury and ordered an audit of all idle and serviceable pistols in preparation for this policy change.

“I can’t be arming the members of the public and not be treating with my own officers,” he said.

With regard to the long-standing backlog of Firearm User’s Licence (FUL) applications, Guevarro also announced yesterday that he has directed that all applications submitted within the past six months be reviewed and processed.

“I took the decision today to call for all of the firearm user’s licence applications for 2025 that have not yet expired past six months…If you have an application and it is not going past six months, I will entertain that application for a decision. I’m not saying whether or not, yay or nay, for a decision,” he said.

The Commissioner explained that the six-month time-frame is based on the legal requirement that supporting documents such as the certificate of good character must still be valid at the time the application is reviewed.

“One of the criteria for getting a FUL is a certificate of good character. And that is only valid for six months. So having an invalid certificate of character—you can’t move forward,” he said.

 

Other requirements include a medical certificate, a psychometric evaluation, and in some cases, letters from spouses.

Guevarro said these documents must all be up to date and reflect the current circumstances of applicants.

 

“A lot can change in half a year, so we need to get that updated,” he said.

Guevarro said the Firearm Permit Section has been instructed to return incomplete or outdated applications to divisional offices, where they can be updated before being sent back for final review and a decision.

The Commissioner also disclosed that there are currently 55,000 firearm licence applicants.

In addition to firearms, Guevarro addressed the status of pepper spray permits, noting that hundreds of applications were still being processed.

He said, “We have issued 225 pepper spray permits to date, and we have approximately 800 pending applications. Before I came here, I actually would have signed a couple of applications for persons who wish to import (pepper spray) for resale.”

He said the product is already in trade and encouraged members of the public to make their applications if they wished to possess pepper spray legally.

On the matter of security features, Guevarro said the TTPS is working on introducing a new identification system for both firearm and pepper spray permits.

“We would like to have both the pepper spray and the current FUL cards revisited into a card with more security features—something similar to those licence stickers that appear when you can scan a code and determine if this is a bona fide card,” he said. “And what are the particulars of the owner of this card? So we’d like to put some security features on it…”