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International organization whose purpose is to fight international crime. Interpol promotes the widest possible mutual assistance between the criminal police authorities of affiliated countries and seeks to establish and develop all institutions likely to contribute effectively to the prevention and suppression of ordinary crime. The organization traces its history to 1914, when a congress of international criminal police, attended by delegates from 14 countries, was held in Monaco. Interpol was formally founded in Austria in 1923 with 20 member countries; after World War II its headquarters moved to Paris and, in 1989, to Lyon, France. By the early 21st century, its membership exceeded 180 countries. Interpol pursues criminals who operate in more than one country (e.g., smugglers), those who stay in one country but whose crimes affect other countries (e.g., counterfeiters of foreign currency), and those who commit a crime in one country and flee to another.
For more information on Interpol, visit Britannica.com.
acronym for the International Criminal Police Organization, a worldwide clearinghouse for police information. Conceived in 1914, Interpol was formally established in 1923 with headquarters at Vienna. In 1938, it was effectively disbanded by Hitler's Anschluss of Austria. After World War II, the agency was reconstituted (1946) with headquarters in Paris. Its principal services are to provide its 184 member nations with information on the whereabouts of international criminals, to organize seminars on scientific crime detection, and to facilitate the apprehension of criminals, although it does not apprehend criminals directly. The organization claims to avoid those crimes that deal with political, military, religious, or racial matters. Interpol has been most successful with regard to counterfeiting, forgery, smuggling, and the narcotics trade.
Bibliography
See studies by M. Anderson (1989) and M. Fooner (1989).
Intelligence Encyclopedia: Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization)
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).
This entry contains information applicable to United States law only.
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.
| International Criminal Police Organization | |
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|
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| Formation | 1923 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Lyon, France |
| Membership | 186 member states |
| Official languages | Arabic, English, French, Spanish |
| Secretary General | Ronald Noble |
| Website | http://www.interpol.int/ |
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.
Interpol is the world's fifth-largest international organization in terms of the number of member countries, after the Universal Postal Union, FIBA (the International Basketball Federation), the United Nations, and FIFA (football's international governing body). Its membership of 186 countries provides finance of around US$59 million through annual contributions. (By comparison, Europol receives $90 million annually.) The organization's headquarters are in Lyon, France. Its current President and Secretary-General are, respectively, Jackie Selebi, National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, and Ronald Noble, formerly of the United States Treasury. Noble is the first non-European to hold the position of Secretary-General.
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[1], or in any political, military, religious, or racial crimes.[2] Its work focuses primarily on public safety, terrorism, organized crime, war crimes, illicit drug production, drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, trafficking in human beings, 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 Interpol public website received an average of 2.2 million page visits every month. Interpol's red notices ("difusiones rojas") that year led to the arrests of 3,500 people.
History
Interpol was founded in Austria in 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), with headquarters located in Vienna until 1942. 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 bureaux 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.
Since 2002, Interpol has also been maintaining a database of lost and stolen identification and travel documents allowing member countries to validate whether a document issued by another country has been invalidated by the issuing authority due to being reported missing or stolen. Passport fraud, for example, is often performed by altering a stolen passport, thus several countries are working on integrating online queries to this database into their standard border control procedures to help identify fraudulent passports from foreign countries when those passports are presented. As of early 2006, the database contained over ten million identification items reported lost or stolen and is expected to grow even 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.
Member states and sub-bureaus
Sub-bureaus shown in italics.
Non-member countries
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
Schöber |
to 1932 |
| Franz
Brandl |
to 1934 |
| Eugen
Seydel |
to 1935 |
| Michael
Skubl |
to 1938 |
 Otto
Steinhäusl |
to 1940 |
| Reinhard Heydrich |
to 1942 |
| Artur 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 |
since 2004 |
Interpol in popular culture
Contrary to what has been featured in some works of fiction, Interpol officers do not directly conduct inquiries in member countries. Its main role is the passing on of information, not actual law enforcement. As an international law enforcement agency, Interpol agents offer unique qualities that make them good candidates for fiction, even if such portrayals do not reflect reality.
Examples
- In the Sly Cooper series, Carmelita Fox and a few other characters are Interpol officers.
- Thompson and Thomson, detectives in the comic series The Adventures of Tintin, are Interpol agents.
- Inspector Gadget is an agent of Interpol.
- In the show Sealab 2021 Quin calls Interpol to find information on a masterlou.
- In the Lupin III franchise, Lupin's eternal foil, Inspector Zenigata, is an agent of Interpol.
- In the comedy film Johnny English, it is eventually revealed that Lorna Campbell is an Interpol agent spying on Pascal Sauvage.
- In Capcom's Street Fighter video game franchise (and many of its adaptations to other media), Chun-Li is an agent of Interpol.
- In Marvel's X-Men the now deceased Irish X-man Banshee was a former Interpol officer.
- In the movie Lord of War, Jack Valentine (Ethan Hawke) is an Interpol officer.
- In the movie Mission: Impossible III, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is told he is on Interpol's Most Wanted list.
- In the manga series Death Note, Interpol was trying to capture Kira, a vigilante killing international criminals.
- In the 2007 season of LOST, an Interpol report is seen when it is discovered that is has been filed against one of the main characters.
- In the book and movie The Da Vinci Code, Interpol is mentioned several times, mainly in reference to their extensive database of information.
- In the anime Azumanga Daioh, the character Tomo Takino wants to be an Interpol agent in the future.
- The Goon Show made a few references to Interpol throughout their run in the 1950s.
- The logo of the Terran Empire within Star Trek's Mirror Universe resembles that used by Interpol.
- In the show Batman Beyond which takes place in the mid-21st century, Interpol is mentioned in reference to its criminal database.
- In the original Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? game from 1985, the user worked for Interpol. Later Carmen Sandiego media instead featured the fictional Interpol-esque ACME Detective Agency.
- In the Indian movie Don starring Shah Rukh Khan, the Interpol is trying to capture Don.
- An American band shares the name Interpol.
- Department S was a British TV series about a fictional Special investigation department of Interpol.
- The protagonists in the film The Medallion are agents of Interpol.
- In the game Resident Evil: Code Veronica X, Chris Redfield from S.T.A.R.S. is working with an Interpol officer before he turns to Anti Umbrella Activism.
- In Psych Shawn Spencer acts as an Interpol agent
- In Ocean's 12 the crew is handed over to Interpol agents
- In Agent Chase works for CHRONOPOL, an Interpol for time.
- In the book Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident one of the antagonists notes to his companions that the protagonist, Artemis Fowl, has an Interpol file.
- In the movie Assassins an interpol agent is shot by Antonio Banderas
See also
- Europol, a similar Europe-wide organization.
- Interpol Terrorism Watch List
External links
- Official website
- Deflem, Mathieu. 2000. “Bureaucratization and Social Control: Historical Foundations of International Policing.” Law & Society Review 34(3):601-640.
- Deflem, Mathieu; “The Logic of Nazification: The Case of the International Criminal Police Commission (Interpol)”, International Journal of Comparative Sociology 43(1):21-44, 2002. PDF
- 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.
Notes
- ^ About INTERPOL .
- ^ ICPO-INTERPOL Constitution and General Regulations. ICPO constitution, article 3.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Dansk (Danish)
abbr., -
n. - Interpol, international kriminalpolitikommission
Français (French)
abbr. - Interpol
n. - Interpol
Deutsch (German)
abbr. - Internationale Kriminalpolizeiorganisation
n. - Interpol (Internationale Kriminalpolizeiorganisation)
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - Ιντερπόλ, Διεθνής Αστυνομία
Português (Portuguese)
abbr. - Polícia (f) Internacional
n. - Interpol (f)
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
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) الإنتربول : منظمه الشرطه الدوليه ( البوليس الدولي)
עברית (Hebrew)
abbr. - האינטרפול
n. - המשטרה הבינלאומית
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