COPS RACK UP $800M IN OVERTIME

Akash Sama­roo

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has paid out near­ly $800 mil­lion in over­time in just two years and eight months, with ex­pen­di­ture for the first eight months of 2026 al­ready sur­pass­ing the en­tire bill for 2025, even as the coun­try pre­pares for an­oth­er round of height­ened polic­ing un­der the new Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions leg­is­la­tion.

Of­fi­cial fig­ures ob­tained through a Free­dom of In­for­ma­tion (FOI) ap­pli­ca­tion re­veal that the TTPS paid $793,893,264.65 in over­time be­tween Jan­u­ary 2024 and Au­gust 2026. Of that amount, $283,187,439.36 was paid be­tween Jan­u­ary and Au­gust this year, ex­ceed­ing the $276,838,626.07 spent through­out 2025 by $6,348,813.29 with four months still re­main­ing in the year.