Trinidad establishes sex offender's registry

Sex offenders register to be implemented in all police divisions by June

Trinidad and Tobago has established a registry for sex offenders, but National Security Minister Edmund Dillon said it would only be available to the police.

Dillon told legislators on Friday that the registry was established on December 22 last year by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS).

This electronic registry is intended to maintain a report of the particulars of sex offenders who have been mandated by the court to give notification. This information will be maintained in a registry to be accessed by authorised officers and investigators in the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service only,” he told Parliament.

He said the police were now engaged in a training and sensitisation exercise with respect to operation of the registry and accessibility to it, as well as restructuring staff requirements to facilitate its requirement.

“Full implementation of the sex offender’s registry and the accompanying station sex offender registry across all nine police divisions will be implemented by June 2016.”

Dillion said he did not believe that it would be better to have public access to facilitate the protection of children, saying “I believe it is designed for police information only and not for the public”.