News
$100,000 in Cash, 18 Guns, 57 Arrests now TCI Police gets 50 NEW Armed Police to kill Crime
Deandrea Hamilton
Editor
Turks and Caicos, January 26, 2025 – Roughly 40-days after a crime crackdown initiative was launched, leaders from the Royal TCI Police report having taken in 18 firearms, illicit drugs, over $100,000 in cash and confirm 57 arrests, with nine individuals formally charged in a court of law.
“These targetted operations were organised to include intelligence driven policing, proactive policing, and specialist operations, strengthening our borders and community engagement initiatives and were carried out in tandem with the Border Force and the TCI Regiment,” said Rodney Adams, Acting Commissioner of Police in a Wednesday January 22, 2025 press conference.
The partnership operations also resulted in one person being arrested for murder.
On Saturday January 25, came the confirmed count of additional support from the United Kingdom, which is responsible for National Security in the Turks and Caicos as a British Overseas territory.
Twelve new officers are to be deployed, augmenting the current 13 on loan from the UK which – at this time – support the tactical unit with
The additional manpower was in response to the infiltration of regional gangsters, which drove the Turks and Caicos’ murder rate to unprecedented heights: 48 homicides in 2024. Now, the UK’s Defence ministry is sending more help and the TCI Government is advancing new money to better staff the Serious Crimes Unit.
“To fortify our capacity, following discussions with regional partners, we have worked to secure secondments for up to thirty specialist armed officers. This will take us to a complement of fifty additional armed officers, while the police recruit seventy-five new rank and file positions approved by Cabinet for expedited recruitment. Additional support has also been approved for the TCI Regiment.”
Ahead of the confirmed support, the Turks and Caicos National Security Council had announced the help would be dispatched, after the vexing crime trend took out two innocent people on Saturday January 18; one a young father and South Caicos native, the other a Sheriff’s deputy and tourist from Chicago, Illinois.
A lone shooter pulled the trigger; shooting three people and giving rise to new fears and fresh reports on the safety of the Turks and Caicos Islands for tourists.
“We will continue to work in collaboration with our regional and international partners as well,” said DCP Adams at the Thursday January 23, press event, adding, “You would have heard about the upsurge that will be happening soon so we will be having additional partners that will be joining us from the region…” explained Adams.
Additionally, it was shared that Cabinet on January 20, approved extra funding for the Police; a Cabinet summary shared:
- Noting the previous uplift of over $3.5m in the Police 2024/25 Budget, Cabinet approved special funding of an additional $500,000 from the Contingency Fund to cover the cost of immediate specialized tactical police deployments from within the region to assist with crime fighting initiatives
- Approved special funding of $100,000 from the Contingency Fund to assist TCI Crimestoppers with crime fighting initiatives such as rewards and tips
- The above is in addition to the previous $730,000 that was awarded to the Police in the November approved supplementary to increase their Serious Crime budget from $500,000 to $1.2m during the 2024/25 financial year
It was also explained that over $5 Million in illegal drugs, mainly Cannabis was seized at TCI Borders in 2024 and the 18 unregistered firearms uncovered during December and January special-ops, were largely found on the streets. Unimaginable in an island nation, which only a decade ago – 2014 – recorded only two murders for the entire year.