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Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (DCP) in charge of Ad­min­is­tra­tion, Ju­nior Ben­jamin, says even with the de­feat of a bill in­tend­ed to in­tro­duce Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tion (ZOSOs) in com­mu­ni­ties across T&T, the po­lice is not dis­cour­aged and will now con­tin­ue reg­u­lar an­ti-crime op­er­a­tions.

The Law Re­form (Zones of Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions) Spe­cial Se­cu­ri­ty and Com­mu­ni­ty De­vel­op­ment 2026 Bill, which re­quired a three-fifths ma­jor­i­ty for pas­sage, did not re­ceive sup­port from a sin­gle In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor on Tues­day night. The Gov­ern­ment need­ed at least four In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tors to sup­port the leg­is­la­tion for its pas­sage. How­ev­er, eight of the nine in­de­pen­dents vot­ed against the bill while one ab­stained.

Re­spond­ing to this de­vel­op­ment dur­ing a po­lice me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Sackville Street, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, Ben­jamin said Gov­ern­ment’s fail­ure to get the leg­is­la­tion passed would not af­fect the po­lice’s abil­i­ty to ful­fill its du­ties.