Caption: Allister Guevarro
- CoP Allister Guevarro says TTPS was called upon to pay $100m between 2025 and 2026 for a body-camera/GPS contract executed under former CoP Gary Griffith.
- Guevarro says he cancelled the contract and is exploring a new licensing arrangement to reuse 750 cameras already bought.
- He says TTPS currently has only 180 body cameras available nationwide and could not fully deploy them for Carnival.
- Guevarro says the 750-camera purchase totalled about $4m, with $22m in licensing/maintenance (2021–2025), averaging about $34,000 per unit.
- Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander has requested an investigation into the contract, and a report is expected “soon,” Guevarro said.
By Alicia Chamely
BETWEEN 2025 and 2026, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) was called upon to pay $100 million for a body-camera/GPS contract executed under former commissioner of police Gary Griffith, Commissioner of Police Allister Guevarro said on Friday.
Guevarro said he has since cancelled the contract and is exploring ways to “reappropriate” the 750 cameras procured under Griffith—through a different licensing arrangement—so they can be put back into use.
He made the disclosure at the TTPS post-Carnival press conference at the Police Administration Building, Port of Spain.
Asked whether officers were equipped with body cameras over the two-day Carnival period, Guevarro said, “We have just 180 body cameras available for service to the TTPS. They are distributed throughout the entire Trinidad and Tobago island nation.”
He added, “At this point in time, due to circumstances beyond our control, we don’t have the body cameras to utilize.”
Questioned about the cameras procured under Griffith—which Guevarro previously said were unusable—he outlined what he described as an improperly executed contract and an excessively high licensing fee.
He said, “Under a former commissioner of police, you would have acquired 750 body cameras… The 750 body cameras were not acquired with the proper execution of a contract. The accounting officer did not execute this contract.”
Guevarro said the cameras cost $3.4 million, with a Bluetooth feature added for $600,000, bringing the subtotal to $4 million for 750 cameras.
He said the licensing and maintenance costs for the period 2021 to 2025 totalled $22 million, putting the average cost at about $34,000 per unit.
“The body-camera contract was interwoven with a GPS contract that already existed in the TTPS, and between last year and this year I’ve been called upon to pay $100 million for that contract. Is that value for money? That’s not my expertise,” he said.
Guevarro said he ended the arrangement because it could not continue, arguing that body cameras could be acquired at a lower cost.
He also said a later attempt by former commissioner Erla Christopher to procure 3,500 body cameras did not proceed, alleging the equipment was overpriced and that items listed in the contract did not meet TTPS standards.
Guevarro said the TTPS is again pursuing body-camera procurement, but wants a system the service can administer without a licensing agreement.
In the meantime, he said he is examining “methods and means of reappropriating those devices through another licensing type of arrangement which we can administrate.”
Asked whether there should be a police investigation into the awarding of the contract, Guevarro said Minister of Homeland Security Roger Alexander had requested that an investigation be launched and that a report be submitted to him.
Guevarro said he could not say when the investigation and report would be completed, but added: “It would be soon.”
