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Interpol

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Law

        International Criminal Police Organization
                         Interpol
   Interpol
   Headquarters       Lyon, France
   Membership         186 member states
   Official languages Arabic, English, French and Spanish
   Secretary-General  Ronald K. Noble
   Formation          1923
   Official website   Interpol's official website

   Interpol (or International Criminal Police Organization) was created in
   1923 to assist international criminal police co-operation. Interpol,
   once merely the organization's telegraphic address, was officially
   incorporated into the organization's new name adopted in 1956, prior to
   which it was known as the International Criminal Police Commission.

   Interpol is the world's third largest international organization, after
   the United Nations and FIFA; it currently has 186 member countries. It
   is financed by annual contributions of about €41.7 million from its
   member countries; Europol, by comparison, receives €63.4 million
   annually. The organization is headquartered in Lyon, France after
   moving from Saint Cloud, a town located in the vicinity of Paris. The
   currently serving president of Interpol is Mr. Jackie Selebi, National
   Commissioner of the South African Police Service. The current secretary
   general, Ronald K. Noble, formerly of the U.S. Treasury Department, is
   the first non-European to hold the position.

   Because of the politically neutral role Interpol must play, its
   constitution forbids any involvement in crimes that do not overlap
   several member countries, or any political, military, religious, or
   racial crimes. Its work focuses primarily on public safety and
   terrorism, organized crime, war crimes, illicit drug production and
   trafficking, weapons smuggling, trafficking in human beings, money
   laundering, child pornography, white-collar crime, high-tech 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 web site - www.interpol.int - received an
   average of 2.2 million page visits every month.

   Following the publication of an Interpol Red Notice or difusion, 3,500
   people were arrested by police in 2005.

History

   Interpol was founded in Austria in 1923 as the International Criminal
   Police Commission. The organization came under control of Nazi Germany
   when Germany declared the Anschluss (political union between Germany
   and Austria). The staff and facilities of Interpol were utilized as an
   information gathering unit for the Gestapo, until the Nazi regime fell
   to Allied forces.

   Senior military officials from Belgium, France, Scandinavia and the
   United Kingdom reorganized Interpol into today's organization.

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 bureaus 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 drugs 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 to immigration officials at airports
   and border checkpoints. 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.

Member countries

     * Afghanistan
     * Albania
     * Algeria
     * Andorra
     * Angola
     * Antigua and Barbuda
     * Argentina
     * Armenia
     * Aruba
     * Australia
     * Austria
     * Azerbaijan
     * Bahamas
     * Bahrain
     * Bangladesh
     * Barbados
     * Belarus
     * Belgium
     * Belize
     * Benin
     * Bolivia
     * Bosnia and Herzegovina
     * Botswana
     * Brazil
     * Brunei
     * Bulgaria
     * Burkina Faso
     * Burundi
     * Cambodia
     * Cameroon
     * Canada
     * Cape Verde
     * Central African Republic
     * Chad
     * Chile
     * China
     * Colombia
     * Comoros
     * Congo
     * Democratic Republic of Congo
     * Costa Rica
     * Ivory Coast
     * Croatia
     * Cuba
     * Cyprus
     * Czech Republic
     * Denmark

     * Djibouti
     * Dominica
     * Dominican Republic
     * East Timor
     * Ecuador
     * Egypt
     * El Salvador
     * Equatorial Guinea
     * Eritrea
     * Estonia
     * Ethiopia
     * Fiji
     * Finland
     * Republic of Macedonia
     * France
     * Gabon
     * Gambia
     * Georgia
     * Germany
     * Ghana
     * Greece
     * Grenada
     * Guatemala
     * Guinea
     * Guinea Bissau
     * Guyana
     * Haiti
     * Honduras
     * Hong Kong
     * Hungary
     * Iceland
     * India
     * Indonesia
     * Iran
     * Iraq
     * Ireland
     * Israel
     * Italy
     * Jamaica
     * Japan
     * Jordan
     * Kazakhstan
     * Kenya
     * Republic of Korea
     * Kuwait
     * Kyrgyzstan

     * Laos
     * Latvia
     * Lebanon
     * Lesotho
     * Liberia
     * Libya
     * Liechtenstein
     * Lithuania
     * Luxembourg
     * Macau
     * Madagascar
     * Malawi
     * Malaysia
     * Maldives
     * Mali
     * Malta
     * Marshall Islands
     * Mauritania
     * Mauritius
     * Mexico
     * Moldova
     * Monaco
     * Mongolia
     * Montenegro
     * Morocco
     * Mozambique
     * Myanmar
     * Namibia
     * Nauru
     * Nepal
     * Netherlands
     * Netherlands Antilles
     * New Zealand
     * Nicaragua
     * Niger
     * Nigeria
     * Norway
     * Oman
     * Pakistan
     * Panama
     * Papua New Guinea
     * Paraguay
     * Peru
     * Philippines
     * Poland
     * Portugal

     * Qatar
     * Romania
     * Russia
     * Rwanda
     * Saint Kitts and Nevis
     * St Lucia
     * Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
     * São Tomé and Príncipe
     * Saudi Arabia
     * San Marino
     * Senegal
     * Serbia
     * Seychelles
     * Sierra Leone
     * Singapore
     * Slovakia
     * Slovenia
     * Somalia
     * South Africa
     * Spain
     * Sri Lanka
     * Sudan
     * Suriname
     * Swaziland
     * Sweden
     * Switzerland
     * Syria
     * Tajikistan
     * Tanzania
     * Thailand
     * Togo
     * Tonga
     * Trinidad and Tobago
     * Tunisia
     * Turkey
     * Turkmenistan
     * Uganda
     * Ukraine
     * United Arab Emirates
     * United Kingdom
     * United States
     * Uruguay
     * Uzbekistan
     * Venezuela
     * Vietnam
     * Yemen
     * Zambia
     * Zimbabwe

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 it
   does not reflect reality.

   Some examples:
     * 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 actually 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 Sly Cooper series, Carmelita Fox and a few other characters
       are Interpol officers.

     * 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 murderer killing international criminals.

     * In the book and movie The Da Vinci Code, the Interpol is mentioned
       several times, mainly in reference to their extensive database of
       information.

     * In the anime/manga series Azumanga Daioh, Tomo wanted to be part of
       Interpol.

     * There is an American band that shares the name Interpol.

     * 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
       looks similar to that of Interpol's logo.

     * "Interpol" databases are referenced in the Carmen Sandiego computer
       games.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpol"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
