Will Trinidad and Tobago’s security gains outlast the end of the state of emergency?

On 17 September, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar announced that the state of emergency introduced to fight crime would not be extended. The decision ends the government’s hallmark security measure to curb criminal violence, which had been in forced for 13 of the 17 months since Persad-Bissessar took office in May 2025.

Sandra Pellegrini, Caribbean Senior Analyst at ACLED, said: 

“After successive states of emergency, Trinidad and Tobago has seen a significant drop in gang violence, though security concerns persist. The end of the state of emergency will test Persad-Bissessar's security strategy to date. It will help determine whether security gains achieved under emergency rule can be sustained over time, or whether they merely reflected a displacement of violence or gangs' temporarily lowering their profile. 

“Across successive state of emergencies in 2025 and 2026, ACLED records a 42% decrease in gang-on-gang clashes and targeting of civilians in 2025 compared to the previous year, followed by a further 16% decrease between January and August 2026 compared with the same period in 2025. Still, those figures should be interpreted with caution, as decreasing levels of violence do not always translate in the dismantling of criminal organizations and their networks, and long-lasting security. 

“Although Persad-Bisessar has not ruled out the possibility of declaring another state of emergency in response to a renewed spike in violence, her government has also advanced the Special Operations Bill — now under Senate’s evaluation — which is likely to enshrine some of the state of emergency powers into ordinary legislation. The bill sets provisions for the Defense forces to support police operations, and the authorities to close areas during security operations, where they can conduct searches without a warrant, detain suspects, declare curfews, and set checkpoints in designated closed areas during anti-crime operations. 

“This raises concerns about both police violence and civil liberties. Fatal police shootings and fatalities in clashes between non-state armed actors and security forces increased significantly throughout successive states of emergency, peaking in 2025 and remaining high during 2026. “Meanwhile, 2,250 people of the 5,800 arrested during the state of emergency have not been charged by the time it ended, and the opposition has voiced concerns that broader emergency powers have facilitated detention without charge.  Should the bill pass, robust safeguards will be necessary to prevent the normalization of police violence and restrictions on civil liberties.”