International Criminal Police Organization - Interpol

For more information on Interpol, visit Britannica.com.

View more History, Politics, Society videos

Interpol is an international organization based in Lyon, France, that fosters global police cooperation by sharing intelligence about cross-border criminal activities among its 181 member nations. Despite popular misconception, the organization maintains no police force of its own. Each member nation maintains and staffs a National Central Bureau to direct Interpol intelligence, while local authorities investigate and prosecute criminals according to national laws. Interpol's actions are limited to receiving requests for assistance; analyzing criminal activities that are not of a political, military, religious, or racial character; and disseminating notices published in four languages (English, French, Spanish, and Arabic) to its members. It currently focuses upon public safety and terrorism, organized crime, illegal drug production and smuggling, weapons dealing, trafficking in human beings, money laundering, and financial and high technology wrongdoing.

Begun in 1923, Interpol is an international effort to halt crime that has occurred or is projected to occur in multiple countries. Although headquartered in France, no country dominates the group and its funding is provided by a sliding scale membership fee that is based upon each country's gross national product (GNP). The organization's policies are set by a vote of its member countries while the governors on its executive committee are required to be drawn from different continents. The secretary general, elected every five years by two-thirds of the members attending the annual General Assembly, is Interpol's chief executive and senior full-time official. Daily activities are conducted at the General Secretariat in Lyon with a staff of 384 who represent 54 different countries. National Central Bureaus (NCB) in member countries ferry Interpol information to appropriate local authorities who bear responsibility for apprehending and extraditing suspected criminals. Five NCBs also act as Regional Stations with Lyon covering Europe, North America, and the Middle East: Nairobi, Kenya, responsible for East Africa; Abidjan, Ivory Coast, focusing on West Africa; Buenos Aires, Argentina, addressing South America; Tokyo, Japan, transmitting to Asia; and Puerto Rico, assisting the Caribbean and Central America.

No nation is required to respond to an Interpol request. Some countries, notably the United States in the years leading up to World War II, have declined to fully cooperate with Interpol for fear that its files may be misused for the prosecution of political criminals. In 1956, the organization agreed to forbid any activities of a political, military, religious, or racial character, but concerns remain that some countries may potentially ignore these guidelines. The chief fear of many member countries is that classified information may fall into the hands of terrorists since the distribution of intelligence cannot be restricted once it enters the Interpol system. Although this worry has reduced the amount of classified information flowing through Interpol, the organization has experienced a steady increase in information traffic. In 2000, Interpol transmitted 2.5 million messages, placed 15,116 notices of criminal activity in circulation, and projected that 1400 people would be arrested or located as the result of Interpol intelligence. Interpol notices are coded into ten different colors that represent different purposes. The red wanted notices are the most common and this type of communication requests the arrest of subjects for whom an arrest warrant has been issued and extradition will be sought. The other notices are: seeking the identity and location of subjects who have committed or witnessed criminal offenses (blue); providing warning about career criminals who have committed offenses in several countries (green); seeking missing or lost people, especially children abducted by parents (yellow); seeking the identification of corpses (black); warning of unusual modus operandi (purple); sharing knowledge of organized crime groups (gray); and advising of criminal activity with international ramifications that does not involve a specific person or group (orange). Stolen property notices are also distributed but are not coded.

As the second largest international organization behind the United Nations, Interpol has a record of proven success. It continues to grow as new nations join and the organization betters its communications system. The increasing global movement of people and the concomitant jump in international crime likely means that Interpol will remain a popular crime-fighting tool well into the twenty-first century.

Further Reading

Books

Anderson, Malcolm. Policing the World: Interpol and the Politics of International Police Co-operation. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

Bresler, Fenton. Interpol. London: Sinclair-Stevenson, 1992.

United States Department of Justice and United States Department of the Treasury. Interpol: The International Criminal Police Organization. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 2002.

Electronic

Interpol. "Interpol Information." <http://www.interpol.int/Public/Icpo/default.asp> (January 17, 2003).

The acronym for the International Criminal Police Organization, which is a group designed to coordinate international law enforcement.

Interpol is an international organization of police forces from 176 countries. The purpose of Interpol is to further mutual aid and cooperation among the police forces of its national members and to prevent and inhibit crime.

Interpol was established in 1923, with the General Secretariat — the international headquarters — located in Lyons, France. Delegates from member countries meet once a year to discuss police problems and admit new members. Each member nation maintains and staffs its own national central bureau. In the United States, the bureau is located in Washington, D.C. The U.S. bureau is under the direction and control of the Departments of Justice and of the Treasury, and is staffed by personnel from those departments.

The General Secretariat is supported by membership dues. Its budget is based on the Swiss franc, since that is a stable currency. Approximately five percent of the total budget is paid by the United States.

Interpol is forbidden by its constitution to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious, or racial character. Each national central bureau coordinates and responds to inquiries received from local and foreign law enforcement agencies. Each bureau also arranges for resolutions adopted by Interpol to be applied at the national level, and works to ensure that the basic principles laid down by Interpol's constitution are followed. National central bureaus are linked electronically to the Interpol General Secretariat's main database in Lyons.

The organization uses a system of international notices (circulars) to inform peace officers in the national bureaus of cases where known criminals abandon their usual residence and travel abroad surreptitiously. The color coded circulars are distributed by Interpol Headquarters to member countries within twenty days of their issue, or, in urgent cases, the same day. In the case of a fugitive whose arrest is requested and whose extradition is likely, a wanted notice containing details of the arrest warrant and the offense committed is circulated.

In addition, Interpol conducts investigations of criminal activities, including drug trafficking, terrorism, counterfeiting, smuggling, organized crime, and new forms of economic crime. It conducts criminal history checks for visa and import permits and traces vehicle registration and ownership. Interpol also performs humanitarian services such as locating missing persons and providing notification of serious illness or death.

• Espionage and Intelligence - Interpol: International Criminal Police Organization; international criminal investigative organization

Dansk (Danish)
abbr., -
n. - Interpol, international kriminalpolitikommission

Nederlands (Dutch)
Interpol

Français (French)
abbr. - Interpol
n. - Interpol

Deutsch (German)
abbr. - Internationale Kriminalpolizeiorganisation
n. - Interpol (Internationale Kriminalpolizeiorganisation)

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - Ιντερπόλ, Διεθνής Αστυνομία

Italiano (Italian)
Interpol

Português (Portuguese)
abbr. - Polícia (f) Internacional
n. - Interpol (f)

Русский (Russian)
Интерпол

Español (Spanish)
abbr. - Interpol, policía internacional
n. - Interpol

Svenska (Swedish)
abbr. - International Criminal Police
n. - Interpol

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
国际刑事警察组织, 国际警察组织

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
abbr. - 國際刑事警察組織
n. - 國際警察組織

한국어 (Korean)
abbr. - International Criminal Police Organization(국제경찰협회)
n. - 국제경찰

日本語 (Japanese)
abbr. - 国際警察

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) الإنتربول : منظمه الشرطه الدوليه ( البوليس الدولي)‏

עברית (Hebrew)
abbr. - ‮האינטרפול‬
n. - ‮המשטרה הבינלאומית‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.