The International Criminal Police Organization
, better known by its telegraphic address Interpol,
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 name in 1956. It should not be confused with the International Police, which takes on an active uniformed role in policing war-torn countries.
Its membership of 186 countries provides finance of around USD 59 million through annual contributions. (By comparison, Europol receives USD 90 million annually.) The organization's headquarters are in Lyon, France.
Its current Secretary-General is Ronald Noble, formerly of the United States Treasury. Noble is the first non-European to hold the position of Secretary-General.
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 Vicepresident for the American Zone, who remained acting president until the organization meeting in October 2008 [1], and was subsequently replaced by National Commissioner of the 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, [2] or in any political, military, religious, or racial crimes. [3] Its work focuses primarily on public safety, terrorism, organized crime, war crimes, 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. Women comprised 42 percent of the staff. The received an average of 2.2 million page visits every month. Interpol's red notices that year led to the arrests of 3,500 people.
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INTERPOL TICKETS
EVENT | DATE | AVAILABILITY |
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Interpol Tickets 5/5 | May 05, 2024 Sun, 8:00 PM | | Interpol Tickets 5/6 | May 06, 2024 Mon, 7:00 PM | | Interpol Tickets 5/7 | May 07, 2024 Tue, 7:30 PM | | Interpol Tickets 5/8 | May 08, 2024 Wed, 6:25 PM | | Interpol Tickets 5/10 | May 10, 2024 Fri, 8:00 PM | |
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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.
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 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
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 aftermaths 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.
A member nation's police force can contact one or more member nations by sending a message relayed through Interpol offices.
In some works of fiction, Interpol officers are seen conducting investigations in member countries. However, this is a highly fictionalized version of the operations of Interpol. Its main role is the passing on of information, not actual law enforcement.
Member states and sub-bureaux
Sub-bureaux shown in
italics
.
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Non-member countries
Malampa
Secretaries-general and presidents
Secretaries-general
since organization's inception in 1923:
Image: Flag of Austria.svg
| Flag of Austria Oskar Dressler
| to 1946 |
Image: Flag of France.svg
| Flag of France Louis Ducloux
| to 1951
| Image: Flag of France.svg
| Flag of France Marcel Sicot
| to 1963
| Image: Flag of France.svg
| Flag of France Jean Népote
| to 1978
| Image: Flag of France.svg
| Flag of France André Bossard
| to 1985
| Image: Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
| Flag of the United Kingdom Raymond Kendall
| to 2000
| Ronald Noble
| since 2000
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Presidents
since organization's inception in 1923:
Image: Flag of Austria.svg
| Flag of Austria Johann Schober
| to 1932 |
Image: Flag of Austria.svg
| Flag of Austria Franz Brandl
| to 1934
| Image: Flag of Austria.svg
| Flag of Austria Eugen Seydel
| to 1935
| Image: Flag of Austria.svg
| Flag of Austria Michael Skubl
| to 1938
| Image: Flag of Germany 1933.svg
| Flag of Nazi Germany Otto Steinhäusl
| to 1940
| Image: Flag of Germany 1933.svg
| Flag of Nazi Germany Reinhard Heydrich
| to 1942
| Image: Flag of Germany 1933.svg
| Flag of Nazi Germany Arthur Nebe
| to 1943
| Image: Flag of Germany 1933.svg
| Flag of Nazi Germany Ernst Kaltenbrunner
| to 1945
| Image: Flag of Belgium (civil).svg
| Flag of Belgium Florent Louwage
| to 1956
| Image: Flag of Portugal.svg
| Flag of Portugal Agostinho Lourenço
| to 1960
| Image: Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
| Flag of the United Kingdom Richard Jackson
| to 1963
| Fjalar Jarva
| to 1964
| Image: Flag of Belgium (civil).svg
| Flag of Belgium Firmin Franssen
| to 1968
| Paul Dickopf
| to 1972
| William Leonard Higgitt
| to 1976
| Carl Persson
| to 1980
| Image: Flag of the Philippines.svg
| Flag of the Philippines Jolly Bugarin
| to 1984
| John Simpson
| to 1988
| Image: Flag of France.svg
| Flag of France Ivan Barbot
| to 1992
| Norman Inkster
| to 1994
| Björn Eriksson
| to 1996
| Image: Flag of Japan.svg
| Flag of Japan Toshinori Kanemoto
| to 2000
| Image: Flag of Spain.svg
| Flag of Spain Jesús Espigares Mira
| to 2004
| Image: Flag of South Africa.svg
| Flag of South Africa Jackie Selebi
| to 2008
| Image: Flag of Chile.svg
| Flag of Chile Arturo Herrera Verdugo
| acting president until the General Assembly in Sankt Petersburg in October 2008, and candidate for the President on that General Assembly
| Image: Flag of Singapore.svg
| Flag of Singapore Khoo Boon Hui
| since Oct 2008
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See also
- Europol, a similar EU-wide organization.
- Interpol Terrorism Watch List
References
- INTERPOL President Jackie Selebi resigns from post
- About INTERPOL
- ICPO-INTERPOL Constitution and General Regulations. ICPO constitution, article 3.
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