Res­i­dents of east Port-of-Spain say a trou­bling trend of po­lice of­fi­cers al­leged­ly drop­ping de­tainees in “hos­tile” neigh­bour­hoods is putting lives at risk, and are call­ing on the lead­er­ship of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) to take ac­tion against those in­volved.

The con­cerns were raised dur­ing a Po­lice Town Hall meet­ing at the St Joseph Road Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre on Wednes­day evening.

One res­i­dent, sol­dier Ja­son Ce­de­no, re­count­ed that his cousin was re­cent­ly de­tained by po­lice dur­ing en­quiries in­to a shoot­ing in the area. Al­though his cousin was re­leased with­out charge, Ce­de­no said of­fi­cers—us­ing un­marked ve­hi­cles—dropped him off in Bel­mont in­stead of re­turn­ing him to his John John com­mu­ni­ty.