International Criminal Police Organization - Interpol

International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL
Common name	Interpol
Abbreviation	ICPO
Logo of the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL.
Agency overview
Formed	1923
Legal personality	Governmental: Government agency
Jurisdictional structure
International agency
Countries	188 member states
Governing body	Interpol General Assembly
Constituting instrument	ICPO-INTERPOL Constitution and General Regulations
General nature	Law enforcement Civilian agency
Operational structure
Headquarters	200, quai Charles de Gaulle, Lyon, France
Agency executives	Khoo Boon Hui, President Ronald Noble, Secretary General
Facilities
National Central Bureaus	187
Website
http://www.interpol.int/
Footnotes
languages (4) Arabic English French Spanish

Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France.

Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL,^[1] is an organization facilitating international police cooperation. It was established as the International Criminal Police Commission in 1923 and adopted its telegraphic address as its common name in 1956.

Its membership of 188 countries provides finance of around $59 million through annual contributions. The organization's headquarters are in Lyon, France. It is the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations.

Its current Secretary-General is Ronald Noble, formerly of the United States Treasury. Jackie Selebi, National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, was president from 2004 but resigned on 13 January 2008, later being charged in South Africa on three counts of corruption and one of defeating the course of justice. He was replaced by Arturo Herrera Verdugo, current National Commissioner of Policía de Investigaciones de Chile and former vice president for the American Zone, who remained acting president until the organization meeting in October 2008,^[2] and was subsequently replaced by Commissioner of Police Singapore Police Force, Khoo Boon Hui.

In order to maintain as politically neutral a role as possible, Interpol's constitution forbids its involvement in crimes that do not overlap several member countries,^[3] or in any political, military, religious, or racial crimes.^[4] Its work focuses primarily on public safety, terrorism, organized crime, crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, Piracy, illicit drug production, drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering, child pornography, white-collar crime, computer crime, intellectual property crime and corruption.

In 2005, the Interpol General Secretariat employed a staff of 502, representing 78 member countries. The Interpol public website received an average of 2.2 million page visits every month. The Interpol's red notices for the year led to the arrests of 3,500 people.

History

Interpol was founded in Austria in 1923 as the International Criminal Police (ICP). Following the Anschluss (Austria's annexation by Nazi Germany) in 1938, the organization fell under the control of Nazi Germany and the Commission's headquarters were eventually moved to Berlin in 1942. It is unclear, however, if and to what extent the ICPC files were used to further the goals of the Nazi regime. However, from 1938 to 1945, the presidents of Interpol included Otto Steinhäusl (a general in the SS), Reinhard Heydrich (a general in the SS, and chair of the Wannsee Conference that appointed Heydrich the chief executor of the "Final solution to the Jewish question"), Arthur Nebe (a general in the SS, and Einsatzgruppen leader, under whose command at least 46,000 people were killed), and Ernst Kaltenbrunner (a general in the SS, the highest ranking SS officer executed after the Nuremberg Trial).

After the end of World War II in 1945, the organization was revived as the International Criminal Police Organization by European Allies of World War II officials from Belgium, France, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. Its new headquarters were established in Saint-Cloud, a town on the outskirts of Paris. They remained there until 1989, when they were moved to their present location, Lyon.

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 bureau 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 drug traffickers and similar criminals have international ties, and so it is likely that crimes will extend beyond political boundaries.

In 2002, following United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 passed in the aftermath of September 11, Interpol began maintaining a database of lost and stolen identification and travel documents, allowing member countries to be alerted to the true nature of such documents when presented. Passport fraud, for example, is often performed by altering a stolen passport; in response, several member countries have worked to make online queries into the stolen document database part of their standard operating procedure in border control departments. As of early 2006, the database contained over ten million identification items reported lost or stolen, and is expected to grow more as more countries join the list of those reporting into the database.

Extradition

In accordance with the definition provided on the Interpol website:

"Extradition is the process by which one State (the requested State) surrenders an individual found on its territory to another State (the requesting State) where he is wanted either to stand trial for an offence he is alleged to have committed, or to serve a penal sentence already pronounced against him."

A preliminary condition for extradition is that the individual is to be prosecuted: if (s)he is merely wanted to give evidence as a witness, the matter must be settled by a so-named letter rogatory and not by extradition.

Extradition can be done by international courtesy based on the principle of reciprocity, or based on the extradition law that has two legal sources: international law and national legislation. The latter may be bilateral extradition treaties or multilateral extradition conventions, such as the European Convention on Extradition, the Commonwealth Scheme for the Rendition of Fugitive Offenders, the Arab League Extradition Convention, the Interamerican Extradition Convention and the Economic Community of West African States Extradition Convention, or other international conventions that incorporate provisions relating to extradition law.

The basic principles of extradition law are as follows:

• Influence of nationality on extradition, meaning that many States do not extradite their own nationals, but place them on trial based on their own laws, in application of the principle 'Aut tradere, aut judicare' (either extradite or judge).
• Nature of the extraditable offence. In this respect, political offences may not give rise to extradition.
• Double criminality, meaning that extraditable offences are only those which are punishable offences in the requesting State, and would have been punishable in the requested State if committed there. By extension of this principle, extradition may be refused if the time limit for prosecution in the requested State has expired. This principle is gradually losing ground.
• 'Non bis in idem': extradition must be refused if the individual whose extradition is requested has already been tried for the same offence. However, if the individual has been pardoned, he may – under the terms of some recent extradition treaties – be tried again.
• Specificity: the person whose extradition has been requested may only be prosecuted, tried or detained for those offences which provided grounds for extradition or those committed subsequent to extradition. If an individual has been extradited in application of a judgment, only the penalty imposed by the decision for which extradition was granted may be enforced. The principle of speciality means that an individual may only be tried for the offences cited in the extradition request, on the basis of the definition of the offences applicable at that time. If the requesting State discovers, subsequent to extradition, that offences had been committed prior to that date and those offences should give rise to prosecution, it may ask the requested State for authorization to prosecute the extradited person for the new offences (this constitutes a request for extension of extradition).
• Capital punishment. If the requested State does not apply the death penalty to its own nationals who are to stand trial, or if it does not carry out the death penalty even though it is one of the penalties that may be applicable, the requested State may refuse extradition if the person whose extradition is requested is likely to be sentenced to death in the requesting State. However, extradition may be granted if the requesting State provides sufficient assurance that the death penalty will not be carried out.

The extradition procedure in the requested State may be one of three types:

• Purely administrative;
• Purely judicial;
• A combination of both judicial and administrative: this is the most frequent type.

Depending on extradition laws, there are two kinds of examination:

• an examination of the documents submitted with the extradition request, the purpose of which is to verify whether the formal conditions for extradition have been met (this is the system in 'Continental-law' countries);
• an examination of the substance of the case, and of the evidence to determine whether there is 'reasonable and probable cause' (this is the system in common-law countries).^[5]

Member states and sub-bureaus

Sub-bureaus shown in italics.

Secretaries-general and presidents

Secretaries-general since organization's inception in 1923:

Oskar Dressler	to 1946
Louis Ducloux	to 1951
Marcel Sicot	to 1963
Jean Népote	to 1978
André Bossard	to 1985
Raymond Kendall	to 2000
Ronald Noble	since 2000

Presidents since organization's inception in 1923:

Johann Schober to 1932 Franz Brandl to 1934 Eugen Seydel to 1935 Michael Skubl to 1938 Otto Steinhäusl to 1940 Reinhard Heydrich to 1942 Arthur Nebe to 1943 Ernst Kaltenbrunner to 1945 Florent Louwage to 1956 Agostinho Lourenço to 1960 Richard Jackson to 1963 Fjalar Jarva to 1964 Firmin Franssen to 1968 Paul Dickopf to 1972 William Leonard Higgitt to 1976 Carl Persson to 1980 Jolly Bugarin to 1984 John Simpson to 1988 Ivan Barbot to 1992 Norman Inkster to 1994 Björn Eriksson to 1996 Toshinori Kanemoto to 2000 Jesús Espigares Mira to 2004 Jackie Selebi to 2008 Arturo Herrera Verdugo acting president until the General Assembly in Saint Petersburg in October 2008, and candidate for the President on that General Assembly Khoo Boon Hui since Oct 2008 Non-member countries  Palau  Solomon Islands  Kiribati  Federated States of Micronesia  Tuvalu  Vanuatu  North Korea  Taiwan (Republic of China) See also Europol, a similar EU-wide organization. International Criminal Court Interpol Terrorism Watch List U.S. Diplomatic Security Service (DSS), United States Department of State Notes ^ About INTERPOL ^ INTERPOL President Jackie Selebi resigns from post ^ About INTERPOL ^ ICPO-INTERPOL Constitution and General Regulations. ICPO constitution, article 3. ^ Extradition - some benchmarks Extradition - some benchmarks External links Lyon portal Official website Deflem, Mathieu. 2000. "Bureaucratization and Social Control: Historical Foundations of International Policing." Law & Society Review 34(3):601–640. Deflem, Mathieu. 2002. "The Logic of Nazification: The Case of the International Criminal Police Commission (Interpol)", International Journal of Comparative Sociology 43(1):21–44. [1] Deflem, Mathieu, and Lindsay C. Maybin. 2005. "Interpol and the Policing of International Terrorism: Developments and Dynamics since September 11." Pp. 175–191 in Terrorism: Research, Readings, & Realities, edited by Lynne L. Snowden and Brad Whitsel. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2005. Coordinates: 45°46′56″N 4°50′54″E / 45.78219°N 4.84838°E / 45.78219; 4.84838 v • d • e International law enforcement organisations Ameripol · Europol · Frontex · International Police · Interpol v • d • e Commonwealth / Supranationalism / World government Theory Federalism · Confederation · Intergovernmentalism · Anti-nationalism · Globalization · Democratic mundialization · Pax · Cosmopolitanism  · New World Order · Supranational union International bodies United Nations · Interpol · International Monetary Fund · World Bank Group · World Trade Organization · Commonwealth of Nations Regional bodies European Union · Latin Union · Council of Europe · Caribbean Community · Arab League · African Union · Union of South American Nations · Shanghai Cooperation Organisation · Association of Southeast Asian Nations · Association of Caribbean States · Central American Integration System · Commonwealth of Independent States · Organization of American States · South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation · Pacific Islands Forum · North Atlantic Treaty Organization · Mercosur International parliaments United Nations General Assembly · European Parliament · Arab Parliament  · Pan-African Parliament · Latin American Parliament · South American Parliament · Mercosur Parliament · Inter-Parliamentary Union International courts International Criminal Court · International Court of Justice · International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia · International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda · African Court of Justice · Caribbean Court of Justice · Inter-American Court of Human Rights  · European Court of Justice · European Court of Human Rights Law and treaties International law (Public · Private · Supranational) · United Nations Charter · Universal Declaration of Human Rights · Geneva Conventions · Rome Statute of the ICC · Kyoto Protocol · European Union treaties · European Union law · Treaty of Chaguaramas History Holy Roman Empire · League of Nations · Permanent Court of International Justice · Nuremberg Trials · Permanent Court of Arbitration · Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere Proposals and concepts United Nations Parliamentary Assembly · Central Asian Union · Commonwealth Union · Pacific Union · North American Union · East African Federation · Arab Union · Federal Europe · East Asian Community · United States of Africa Movements Federal Union · World Federalist Movement · Global citizens movement