Trinidad and Tobago has lifted a state of emergency that had been in place for most of the past 20 months. However, concerns remain about the possibility of increased violence following the move. Authorities are still on high alert, and activists and lawyers have criticized the mass arrests that occurred during the emergency period. The state of emergency allowed the government to detain individuals believed to be threats to national security, including a prominent businessman and his wife, who were accused of plotting to kill the prime minister. They were never formally charged and were later released. The state of emergency was first declared in December 2024 and was extended multiple times, with the most recent extension in early March 2025. Over 5,800 people were arrested after that extension, and more than 2,250 of them remain without charges, according to Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar. It is unclear whether those not facing charges will be released. The prime minister said in Parliament that credible threats against law enforcement that led to the emergency declaration have “substantially reduced.” However, Trinidad and Tobago has been under a state of emergency for about 16 of the last 20 months, a period marked by high levels of violence. In 2024, police reported a record 624 killings in the country, which had a population of around 1.4 million people. The number of reported killings dropped to 369 in 2025, but police later uncovered a plot to kill key government officials and attack public institutions. This year, police have recorded 255 reported killings so far, slightly lower than the 268 recorded during the same period last year. Local attorney Criston J. Williams expressed concerns about the treatment of detainees and called for an investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. He described the conditions in which his clients were held and criticized the lack of attorney-client privacy during meetings. Trinidad and Tobago’s main opposition party has criticized the state of emergency, calling it a failure. They argue that the measure did not effectively help in detecting or combating crime, despite the use of extraordinary powers. Meanwhile, Tricia Richards, the wife of Earl Richards, who is one of 11 people charged in the 2014 killing of prominent attorney Dana Seetahal, is hoping to see her husband again. She has not been able to visit or contact him since July 2025. Earl Richards was moved from a maximum-security facility to a makeshift prison on a military base after being detained. He recently appeared in a video shared on social media, giving his wife a rare chance to see him. The prime minister has stated that the country remains a democracy and that any legal challenges from those detained without charges will be decided by the courts.