The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has ta­ken nearly four months—and counting—to provide basic information about its investiga­tion into underground child por­nography rings, repeatedly extending a legally prescribed 30-day response period under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).Despite three extension requests and repeated follow-ups by the Sunday Express, the TTPS has yet to say whether the investigation remains active, how many arrests have been made, or how many ca­ses have been referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).Here’s the timeline of what has transpired to date:On April 30, the Sunday Express contacted TTPS’ corporate communications officer, Joanne Archie, seeking an update on the police investigation into the underground pornographic rings and received no response.That day, the Sunday Express also filed a FOIA request with the TTPS’ Legal Department.The request sought out basic information about the investigation, like whether it remained open and active, the unit of the TTPS it is currently assigned to, the number of arrests made in relation to child pornography, number of suspects interviewed, and the number of cases referred to the DPP.The Sunday Express also sought records of the TTPS’ overall efforts to address the phenomenon, including the number of child pornography reports it had received between 2020 and present day, the number of investigations opened as a result, the number of charges laid, and the number of cases referred to the DPP.An acknowledgement was received in early May via e-mail, the TTPS then indicating that a response would be provided on or before June 8, 2026.Legally, responses to an official request for information are to be delivered within 30 days of the application being made.Section 15 of the FOIA states that a “public authority shall take reasonable steps to enable an applicant to be notified of the approval or refusal of his request as soon as practicable but in any case, not later than 30 days after the day on which the request is duly made”.By June 8, no further communication from the TTPS had been received.The Sunday Express called and e-mailed the Legal Department repeatedly, seeking a response. Two days later, on June 10, the TTPS responded via e-mail, requesting an extension that it said would allow them until July 10 to respond.In that response, the TTPS said it was still awaiting receipt of information from the relevant department to provide the Sunday Express with a substantive response. It noted that when its office receives the documents pursuant to the request, the applicant would be notified in wri­ting about whether it had been approved or denied.Thirty days passed before the TTPS requested a second extension on July 10, stating that the information requested was being extracted from a “decentralised unit” and indicated that a response would be sent to the Sunday Express on or before August 10.By last Thursday, the TTPS had not provided the information requested, nor explained why it had not done so, despite numerous requests for updates. The Sunday Express pointed out that its non-response did not correspond with the FOIA’s legally prescribed time frame for a response.At 4 p.m. last Friday, three days after the Sunday Express yet again enquired of the TTPS if it intended to respond, the Sunday Express received a third request for an extension. The TTPS asked for an additional 30 days from August 20 to respond to the request, expiring on September 21.The extension request did not account for the ten days since its second extension request expired, during which the Sunday Express repeatedly made attempts to contact the TTPS.The requested extension would mean that should the TTPS choose to approve the Sunday Express’ request and provide answers on the status of its investigation into the child pornography rings on September 21, it would have taken them 144 days to do so.Last Friday the Sunday Express asked the TTPS to account for the delay, the ten-day gap between extension requests, and to acknowledge that the legally prescribed time frame has long elapsed.We asked the TTPS to identify the “decentralised administrative unit” from which the information was being sourced. To date no response has been received.