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Trinidad and Tobago declared a state of emergency on Monday amid an increase in killings by criminal groups. This move gives police the ability to conduct searches and arrests without a warrant over the next two days.

“The circumstances justifying the declaration of a public emergency are based on the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service’s notification to the National Security Council that there is increased criminal activity endangering public safety,” said a statement from the Office of Prime Minister Keith Rowley.

Attorney-General Stuart Young said the country recorded 61 murders in December, bringing the year’s total to 623 murders, an increase from 577 murders in 2023 and 599 in 2022.

Young told a news conference in the capital Port of Spain that the public emergency would not include a curfew or restrictions on people’s movements in order to minimize the economic impact of the declaration.

Police’s authority to conduct searches and arrests without a warrant could be extended by a judge to up to seven days, Young said.

At the same news conference, National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds called the rise in violent killings “an epidemic” for the country of 1.4 million people. As of December 26, 551 shootings have been recorded this year.

Recent incidents of violence included a man shot dead after leaving a police station in Port of Spain on Saturday and a shooting in Laventille, Trinidad, on Sunday in which five people were killed.

A state of emergency had already been declared in 2011 for the same reason, but its application was limited to crime “hotspots”.

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