When the FBI Comes Calling…®

INTERPOL AND OTHER FORMS OF MUTUAL ASSISTANCE

Interpol
Interpol exists to coordinate international police-to-police communication by creating channels of communication and maintaining a massive centralized records system. Id. at 3. The mission of Interpol, in its own words is: "To be the world's pre-eminent police organisation in support of all organisations, authorities and services whose mission is preventing, detecting, and suppressing crime."

Interpol will achieve this by:
• Providing both a global perspective and a regional focus;
• Exchanging information that is timely, accurate, relevant and complete;
• Facilitating international co-operation;
• Co-ordinating joint operational activities of its member countries;
• Making available know-how, expertise and good practice
Interpol will act on the basis of the articulated demands and expectations of these organisations, authorities and services, while remaining alert to developments so as to be able to anticipate future requirements. INTERPOL, INTERPOL INFORMATION, available here (last visited June 2, 2005).

Interpol accomplishes this by following a very rigid framework of steps. First, a magistrate or the Ministry of the Interior in a country asks its National Central Bureau to circulate an arrest warrant internationally. INTERPOL, INTERPOL'S ROLE IN TRACING WANTED INDIVIDUALS WITH A VIEW TO THEIR EXTRADITION, available here (last visited June 2, 2005). This warrant is transmitted across the Interpol network to other National Central Bureaus. Id. Alternately, the originating National Central Bureau can transmit a request to the General Secretariat of Interpol for a "red notice" to be issued. Id. Once the red notice request is examined by the General Secretariat, it can be transmitted to all the National Central Bureaus. Id. Once a country's National Central Bureau receives the red notice or the wanted notification, it will circulate the notice to the law enforcement departments concerned in its state. Id. If and when the suspect is found, the police department which located him informs the National Central Bureau in that country, which then informs the General Secretariat and the National Central Bureau which requested the red notice, which then informs the magistrate who issued the arrest warrant. Id.

Interpol also maintains an international wanted list, see INTERPOL, WANTED available here (last visited June 2, 2005), as well as fact sheets about a whole range of transnational crimes. See, generally, INTERPOL available here (last visited June 2, 2005).

You can find out more about Interpol's colored notices system by visiting our International Extradition site, here.

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