Interpol
| International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL | |
| Common name | Interpol |
| Abbreviation | ICPO |
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| 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 |
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| Operational structure | |
| Headquarters |  200, quai Charles de Gaulle, Lyon, France |
| Agency executives |
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| Facilities | |
| National Central Bureaus | 187 |
| Website | |
| http://www.interpol.int/ | |
| Footnotes | |
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, environmental crime, 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 2008, the Interpol General Secretariat employed a staff of 588, representing 84 member countries. The Interpol public website received an average of 2.2 million page visits every month. Interpol issued 3,126 red notices for the year 2008 which led to the arrest of 718 people.[5]
Contents |
History
The first significant move towards creating Interpol was in 1914 at the First International Criminal Police Congress. Police officers, lawyers and magistrates from 14 countries gathered in Monaco to discuss arrest procedures, identification techniques, centralized international criminal records and extradition proceedings.[6] However World War I delayed this initiative and it was not until 1923 that Interpol was founded in Austria 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
Interpol differs from most law-enforcement agencies -- agents do not make arrests themselves, and there is no single Interpol jail where criminals are taken. The agency functions as an administrative liaison between the law-enforcement agencies of the member countries, providing communications and database assistance. This is vital when fighting international crime because language, cultural and bureaucratic differences can make it difficult for officers of different nations to work together. For example, if FBI officers track a terrorist to Italy, they may not know whom to contact in the Polizia di Stato, if the Polizia Municipale has jurisdiction over some aspect of the case, or who in the Italian government needs to be notified of the FBI's involvement. The FBI can contact the Interpol National Central Bureau in Italy, which will act as a liaison between the United States and Italian law-enforcement agencies.
Interpol's databases help law enforcement see the big picture of international crime. While other agencies have their own extensive crime databases, the information rarely extends beyond one nation's borders. Interpol can track criminals and crime trends around the world. They maintain collections of fingerprints and mug shots, lists of wanted persons, DNA samples and travel documents. Their lost and stolen travel document database alone contains more than 12 million records. They also analyze all this data and release information on crime trends to the member countries.
A secure worldwide communications network allows Interpol agents and member countries to contact each other at any time. Known as I-24/7, the network offers constant access to Interpol's databases. While the National Central Bureaus are the primary access sites to the network, some member countries have expanded it to key areas such as airports and border access points. Member countries can also access each other's criminal databases via the I-24/7 system.
In the event of an international disaster, terrorist attack or assassination, Interpol can send an incident response team. This team can offer a range of expertise and database access to assist with victim identification, suspect identification and the dissemination of information to other nations' law enforcement agencies. In addition, at the request of local authorities, they can act as a central command and logistics operation to coordinate other law enforcement agencies involved in a case. Such teams were deployed 12 times in 2005.
Member states and sub-bureaux
Sub-bureaux shown in italics.
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Non-member countries
Palau
Solomon Islands
Kiribati
Federated States of Micronesia
Tuvalu
Vanuatu
North Korea
Taiwan (Republic of China)
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:
See also
References
External links
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