Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has dis­missed spec­u­la­tion that the on­go­ing State of Emer­gency (SoE) is be­ing used as a crime-fight­ing tool.

How­ev­er, he at­trib­uted sharp de­clines in sev­er­al cat­e­gories of crime, in­clud­ing homi­cides and kid­nap­pings, to the con­tin­ued de­ten­tion of peo­ple cur­rent­ly in cus­tody.

Speak­ing dur­ing a me­dia brief­ing at the Po­lice Ad­min­is­tra­tion Build­ing, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day, the top cop al­so ad­dressed last Fri­day’s pub­lic un­ease and pan­ic fu­elled by ru­mours of im­pend­ing strikes by the US on Venezuela, which led to both sol­diers and po­lice of­fi­cers be­ing called to im­me­di­ate du­ty.