INTERPOL: International Criminal Police Organization

Posted by Pamela S. on Wednesday, June 6th, 2012

For the past few days I have written posts about a fugitive on INTERPOL’s Most Wanted.  INTERPOL is so much more than a most wanted list. Let’s take a look.

INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization comprised of 190 member countries. INTERPOL is a contraction of “international police”. The official name is “ICPO–INTERPOL which is the 'International Criminal Police Organization', or in French, “O.I.P.C.”, “Organisation internationale de police criminelle”.

The General Secretariat or headquarters is located in Lyon, France. INTERPOL has a representative office at the United Nations and the European Union as well as seven regional offices around the world. Each member country maintains a National Central Bureau.

INTERPOL maintains a politically neutral stance and The INTERPOL Constitution prohibits 'any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character'.

The mandate of INTERPOL is to work with international law enforcement and provide access to tools, services and training.

INTERPOL issued a Red Notice on May 31, 2012 regarding the individual I was writing about, Luka Magnotta, at the behest of Canadian law enforcement. Magnotta was taken into custody on June 4. 2012.

Interpol notices alert international law enforcement, the media and public to a particular situation, suspect or missing person.

The notices are as follows:

Red Notice - To seek the arrest or provisional arrest of wanted persons with a view to extradition.

Blue Notice - To locate, identify or obtain information on a person of interest in a criminal investigation.

Green Notice - To warn about a person's criminal activities if that person is considered to be a possible threat to public safety.

Yellow Notice - To help locate missing persons, often minors, or to help identify persons who are unable to identify themselves.

Black Notice - To seek information on unidentified bodies.

Orange Notice - To warn of an event, a person, an object or a process representing an imminent threat and danger to persons or property.

Purple Notice - To prov

r generic viagra'>order generic viagraide information on modi operandi, objects, devices and concealment methods used by criminals.

INTERPOL–United Nations Security Council Special Notice
Issued for individuals and entities that are subject to UN sanctions.

Fugitive investigations are probably what INTERPOL is best known for. Criminals can easily travel to other countries to escape justice. INTERPOL’s Red Notice provides information and a photograph of wanted suspects. INTERPOL also provides assistance to police forces in locating missing persons.

Some of the other important work that INTERPOL is involved with is crimes against children, such as sex tourism and Internet crimes involving children.

INTERPOL also assists international police agencies in the investigation of the following: Financial crime, cyber crime, environmental crime, works of art, corruption, drugs, firearms, intellectual property and counterfeiting crimes, human trafficking, vehicle crime, pharmaceutical crime, terrorism, maritime piracy and organized crime.

INTERPOL provides all National Central Bureaus with access to all of their databases (except child sexual exploitation images).

Their Main databases (from INTERPOL's website, click here for the full description) are:

• Nominal Data –  more than 162,000 records on known international criminals, missing persons and dead bodies.
• Notices – (see above) In 2011 more than 26,000 Notices or diffusions were published.
• Stolen and Lost Travel Documents –  more than 31 million travel documents reported lost or stolen by 161 countries.
• Child sexual exploitation images – at the end of 2011, nearly 2,500 victims from more than 40 countries and 1,377 offenders had been identified.
• Fingerprints – an Automated Fingerprint Identification System which contains more than 151,000 sets of fingerprints contributed by 167 countries.
• DNA Profiles – contains around 117,000 DNA profiles from 61 countries.
• Firearms – more than 250,000 firearms references and 57,000 high-quality images.
• Stolen Works of Art – more than 38,000 pieces of artwork and cultural heritage reported stolen all over the world.
• Stolen Motor Vehicles – provides extensive identification details on approximately 7.1 million vehicles reported stolen around the world.
• Fusion Task Force – a database of more than 11,000 persons suspected of being linked to terrorist activities.
• Stolen Administrative Documents – contains information on around 440,000 official documents which serve to identify objects, for example, vehicle registration documents and clearance certificates for import/export.

Interested in working with INTERPOL?  There are two types of positions:

Contract positions: these are positions such as administrative posts, contracted directly with INTERPOL.

Seconded positions: INTERPOL recruits law enforcement personnel from all of their member countries. All law enforcement positions are seconded from their national agency.

INTERPOL is opening a cutting edge research and development facility in Singapore. The INTERPOL Global Complex for Innovation is scheduled to open in early 2014. The General Secretariat will remain in Lyon. The new complex will support the world headquarters.

Check out INTERPOL’s YouTube channel and Twitter feed.

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