Law enforcement agencies in Caribbean countries, especially Trinidad and Tobago, have been struggling with low levels of public confidence. To examine the public-police relationship in these countries, this study proposed and tested two models of public confidence in the police using data from a sample of 1,595 adults in Trinidad and Tobago. Findings from Structural Equation Modeling indicated that public confidence in the police was driven not only by actual crime and fear of crime but also by other variables such as community cohesion, social problems, and informal social control. The findings provide valuable insights which help to clarify the nature of the public-police relationship in Trinidad and Tobago and suggest that attention to a wider range of variables can be used to build public confidence in the police.

加勒比国家，尤其是特立尼达和多巴哥的执法机构一直在公众信心低下的情况下苦苦挣扎。为了研究这些国家的公共警察关系，本研究使用来自特立尼达和多巴哥的1,595名成年人的数据，提出并测试了两种公众对警察的信任模型。从结构方程模型的研究结果表明，公众对警察的信心不仅受到实际犯罪和对犯罪的恐惧的驱动，还受到其他变量的影响，例如社区凝聚力，社会问题和非正式的社会控制。这些发现提供了宝贵的见解，有助于阐明特立尼达和多巴哥的公共与警察关系的性质，并表明对更广泛变量的关注可以用来建立公众对警察的信心。