When Interpol Comes Calling…™

Interpol

One of the most important law enforcement vehicles for assistance in criminal matters on the international front is the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL). Interpol was founded in 1923 and is headquartered in Lyon, France. The United States has been a member since the 1930s.

Interpol's mission is to promote international police cooperation. It acts as a facilitator to help police officers from different police forces and countries, with different languages and cultures, to cooperate with one another to prevent and detect international criminal activity.

Interpol deals only with international crime. Its focus is with crime that occurs in two or more member countries. It does not concern itself with domestic crime where a crime is planned and committed in just one country.

Most countries are members of Interpol. Each member country has an Interpol office located within its own country. That office is called the National Central Bureau (NCB). The NCB is the operational body of Interpol. It is the single point of contact for foreign governments. The NCBs serve as the channel for the communication of requests between the law enforcement authorities of the member countries. Interpol requests may be made only by the NCB of the requesting country to the NCB of the requested country. Interpol communications may be transmitted directly between the affected NCBs, or routed through Interpol headquarters. For example, if the Cleveland Police Department wishes to obtain criminal record information on an Italian national arrested in Cleveland, it can not make the request directly to the Italian NCB, but only through the United States NCB.

An NCB that receives a request from an NCB of another country is responsible for: screening the request to determine whether it can be executed in accordance with its laws; transmitting the request to the appropriate local authority for execution; providing advice to the executing authority with regard to any questions that may arise in connection with execution; monitoring the timeliness of execution; and returning the executed request to the requesting NCB or informing it of the reason the request could not be executed (ie the person whose location was sought could not be found).

Contrary to popular belief, Interpol officers do not travel around the world investigating cases in different countries. Each member country employs its own law enforcement officers to investigate criminal activity in accordance with its own national laws. The United States NCB is located in the U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. It reports directly to the Deputy Attorney General. Much of its staff is comprised of investigative agents and support personnel assigned to it by all of the major federal law enforcement agencies.

More information can be found on the following subjects:

1. Interpol's International Notices System.

2. Treaties and Conventions linked with Interpol activities.

3. List of countries showing membership in Interpol, and U.S. embassy and consulate postings of law enforcement agents from the FBI, DEA, U.S. Customs, and U.S. Secret Service.