International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol)

Interpol- Relevance for UPSC Exam

• GS Paper 2: International Relations- Important International institutions, agencies and fora- their structure, mandate.

Interpol in News

• The General Assembly of the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) is meeting in Delhi for four days from October 18.
• This is the second time since 1997 the 195 member-strong Interpol is holding such a large conference in India.

What is Interpol?

• About: the Interpol is a secure information-sharing platform that facilitates criminal investigation of police forces across the globe through collection and dissemination of information received from various police forces.
  • Foundation: International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) was set up in 1923.
• Organisational Structure: The head of Interpol is the President who is elected by the General Assembly.
  • He comes from one of the member-nations and holds office for four years.
  • The day-to-day activities are overseen by a full-time Secretary General also elected by the General Assembly.
• Coordination among member countries: All contact of a country’s law enforcement agency with Interpol is through the highest investigating body of the land. The CBI assumes this role in India.
• Key Role: It keeps track of the movements of criminals and those under the police radar in various regions and tips off police forces which had either sought the Interpol’s assistance or which in its opinion will benefit from the particulars available with it.
  • Aided by state-of-the art databases and computer analytics, the Interpol operates round the clock and employs some of the best minds in the area of crime analysis and technology.
  • It aims to promote the widest-possible mutual assistance between criminal police forces.

How is the Interpol organised?

• The day-to-day activities are overseen by a full-time Secretary General elected by the General Assembly, who holds office for five years.
• The General Assembly lays down the policy for execution by its Secretariat which has several specialised directorates for cybercrime, terrorism, drug trafficking, financial crime, environmental crime, human trafficking, etc.
• Every member-country is the Interpol’s face in that country.
• All contact of a country’s law enforcement agency with Interpol is through the highest investigating body of the land.
• The CBI assumes this role in India with one of its senior officers heading its exclusive Interwing (the National Central Bureaus) for collation of information and liaison with the world body.

What is the Red notice?

• It is a structured communication issued by the Interpol to all member-nations notifying the name(s) of persons against whom an arrest warrant is pending in a particular country.
• The notice issued requests all member nations that if the named individual(s) is located in their country an immediate communication should be sent to the nation that wants him in connection with a criminal investigation.

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