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Interpol
 

This article is about the International Criminal Police Organization. For other meanings, see Interpol (disambiguation)
For the band Interpol, see Interpol (band). Interpol (or International Criminal Police Organization) was created in 1923 to assist international criminal police co-operation. Interpol, once merely the organization's telegraphic address, was officially incorporated into the organization's new name adopted in 1956, prior to which it was known as the International Criminal Police Commission.

Interpol is the world's second largest international organization, after the United Nations; it currently has 184 member countries. It is financed by annual contributions of about €30 million from its member countries; Europol, by comparison, receives €50 million annually. The organization is headquartered in Lyon, France after moving from Saint Cloud, a town located in the vicinity of Paris. The currently serving president of Interpol is Mr. Jackie Selebi, commissioner of the South African Police Service. The current secretary general, Ronald K. Noble, formerly of the U.S. Treasury Department, is the first non-European to hold the position.

Because of the politically neutral role Interpol must play, its Constitution forbids any involvement in crimes that do not overlap several member countries, or any political, military, religious, or racial crimes. Its work focuses primarily on public safety and terrorism, organized crime, illicit drug production and drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, trafficking in human beings, money laundering, child pornography, financial and high-tech crime, and corruption.

In October 2001, the Interpol General Secretariat employed a staff of 384, representing 54 different countries. That same month, Interpol began to change from a 9-to-5 agency to a 24-hour agency.

In 2001, some 1,400 people were arrested or located as a result of Interpol notices.

History

Interpol was founded in Austria in 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission. The organization came under control of Nazi Germany when Germany declared the Anschluss (political union between Germany and Austria). The staff and facilities of Interpol were utilized as an information gathering unit for the Gestapo, until the Nazi regime fell to Allied forces.

Senior military officials from Belgium, France, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom reorganized Interpol into today's organization.

Methodology

Each member country maintains a National Central Bureau (NCB) staffed by national law enforcement officers. The NCB is the designated contact point for the Interpol General Secretariat, regional bureaus and other member countries requiring assistance with overseas investigations and the location and apprehension of fugitives. This is especially important in countries which have many law-enforcement agencies: this central bureau is a unique point of contact for foreign entities, which may not understand the complexity of the law-enforcement system of the country they attempt to contact. For instance, the NCB for the United States of America is housed at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The NCB will then ensure the proper transmission of information to the correct agency.

Interpol maintains a large database charting unsolved crimes and both convicted and alleged criminals. At any time, a member nation has access to specific sections of the database and its police forces are encouraged to check information held by Interpol whenever a major crime is committed. The rationale behind this is that drugs traffickers and similar criminals have international ties, and so it is likely that crimes will extend beyond political boundaries.

Since 2002 Interpol has also been maintaining a database of lost and stolen identification and travel documents allowing member countries to validate whether a document issued by another country has been invalidated by the issuing authority due to being reported missing or stolen. Passport fraud for example is often performed by altering a stolen passport, thus several countries are working on integrating online queries to this database into their standard border control procedures to help identify fraudulent passports from foreign countries when those passports are presented to immigration officials at airports and border checkpoints. As of early 2006, the database contained over ten million identification items reported lost or stolen and is expected to grow even more as more countries join the list of those reporting into the database.

A member nation's police force can contact one or more member nations by sending a message relayed through Interpol.

Contrary to what has been featured in some works of fiction, Interpol officers do not directly conduct inquiries in member countries.

Member states

Interpol in popular culture

As an international law enforcement agency, Interpol agents offer unique qualities that make them good candidates for fiction. Some examples:

  • In the manga series Death Note, the Interpol was trying to capture the Kira.

  • In the book and movie The Da Vinci Code, the Interpol is mentioned several times, mainly in reference to their extensive database of information.

The logo of the Mirror Universe looks suspiciously similar to that of Interpol.

External links

International organizations | International law enforcement organisations | Intelligence agencies

Interpol | Interpol | Interpol | Organización Internacional de Policía Criminal | Interpol | Interpol | Interpol | Interpol | אינטרפול | Interpol | 国際刑事警察機構 | Interpol | Interpol | International Criminal Police Organization | Интерпол | Interpol | Interpol | Interpol | Interpol | 国际刑警组织 | சர்வதேச காவல் துறை (இன்டர்போல்)

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Interpol".

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