Interpol
is a nongovernmental international organization that aims to provide and
promote mutual assistance among nations’ criminal police authorities within
the limits of their respective national laws and in the spirit of the United
Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Representing police agencies
from 1864 nations in 2006, Interpol enables information exchange among
participating police via so-called National Central Bureaus that are linked
to the organization’s central headquarters in Lyon, France. Founded in
1923, the organization has remained virtually unchanged in terms of its
objectives of criminal law enforcement and its structure as a collaborative
international police network.
History
Interpol was established
as the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) in 1923 in Vienna.
The commission was set up in response to growing concerns over the internationalization
of crime, especially in the turbulent aftermath of World War I. The organization
was conceived as a collaborative network to facilitate communications and
enhance cooperation among the world’s police. To facilitate cooperation,
a central headquarters was established in Vienna through which information
could be routed to the participating agencies. Printed publications, a
radio and telegraph system, and regularly held meetings of police representatives
provided additional means of information exchange. The membership of the
organization steadily grew, although for a long time it remained a primarily
European organization. U.S. membership was secured in 1938 when Congress
approved the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to join the ICPC on
behalf of the U.S. attorney general.
The establishment of the
ICPC did not involve the creation of a supranational police force with
executive powers of investigation and arrest. Instead, the international
organization was set up—and Interpol today still operates—as a collaborative
network of police agencies from different nations. The organization was
created without the signing of a formal intergovernmental treaty. Formal
provisions of international law were explicitly evaded because they were
seen as hindering efficient international police cooperation, such as in
the case of formal extradition procedures.
In the years before and during
World War II, the ICPC would fall prey to the Nazi regime. When Austria
was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, control of the ICPC headquarters went
to the Nazi-appointed president of the Viennese police. A few years later
the ICPC was incorporated into the SS security system and the headquarters
were moved to Berlin. Dormant throughout World War II, the organization
was revived in 1946 in Brussels. Renamed the International Criminal Police
Organization, the organization’s headquarters were relocated to Paris.
The statutes of the organization were left unchanged from those adopted
in 1923, except that the nonpolitical character of the organization was
made explicit by incorporating in the statutes the exclusion of all political,
racial, and religious matters. The political turmoil brought about by the
beginning of the Cold War era, however, would soon have consequences for
the international police organization. With the Soviet control over the
nations of Eastern Europe that participated in the organization, the FBI
became suspicious of the organization and formally terminated its participation
in 1950. U.S. membership was from then on secured on an informal basis
by an office in the Treasury Department. Having later reestablished formal
ties, U.S. participation in Interpol came to be managed jointly by the
Departments of Justice and the Treasury.
Modernization and Contemporary
Focus
The name change to include
the acronym Interpol occurred in 1956. Interpol’s membership steadily expanded,
but the organization would not play a leading role in international police
work. Revelations surrounding the Nazi past of the organization as well
as the Nazi connections of some of its postwar leaders led to strong accusations
against it. Also, while international policing activities expanded considerably
during the latter half of the twentieth century, police institutions continued
to engage predominantly in unilaterally conceived international activities,
primarily by stationing agents abroad, or to work on a bilateral or otherwise
limited cooperative basis rather than in a permanent multilateral organization.
From the 1970s onward, Interpol made headway in organizing police cooperation
in matters concerning international terrorism, but the organization was
nonetheless often regarded as an ineffective organization and not widely
trusted.
In 1989 the Interpol headquarters
were moved to a new building in Lyon. With increased vigor since the 1980s
and especially after several highly visible terrorist attacks in the 1990s,
such as the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, Interpol stepped up its
activities against international terrorism. In 1984 a new Interpol resolution
encouraged the member agencies to cooperate on matters of terrorism, and
by the late 1990s the fight against international terrorism was adopted
as a central aim of Interpol. The events of 11 September 2001 led
to a strengthening of Interpol’s focus on terrorism and a strengthening
of its infrastructure. A new global communications system was set up on
the basis of a private Internet-based network of encrypted information.
Impact and Results
Reviewing the impact of Interpol,
the organization has a distinct but limited function in maintaining an
international information network among police that is wholly dependent
on the participation of the various member agencies. Technologically advanced
systems of information exchange were set up and participating police agencies
linked via the Interpol headquarters, which functions as a central clearinghouse.
Yet sensitive police information, such as in the area of terrorism, is
not always readily shared. The police agencies of some nations, also, are
not technically equipped to participate in international communications
as the necessary computerized infrastructure, personnel, and finances are
not always available.
A central advantage of Interpol
is its broad multilateral reach across the world, including police from
countries that are ideologically diverse and politically not always on
the best of the terms. Interpol ensures cooperation in criminal matters
over which concerns are shared internationally. Interpol has also given
priority to certain international crimes, rather than seeking to accomplish
many tasks for which it is not equipped. Specifically, Interpol places
a premium on cases involving drugs and organized crime, public security
and terrorism, financial and high-tech crimes, fugitives from justice,
and the trafficking of human beings. Inasmuch as the police agencies from
different nations across the world can reach a common understanding about
the nature of these crimes and the means to combat them, Interpol can aid
in instituting effective ways to combat international crime through mutual
cooperation.
See also Police.
Bibliography
-
Anderson, Malcolm. Policing
the World: Interpol and the Politics of International Police Co-operation.
Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.
-
Barnett, Michael, and Liv Coleman.
“Designing Police: Interpol and the Study of Change in International Organizations.”
International Studies Quarterly 49 (2005): 593–619.
-
Bresler, Fenton S. Interpol.
Toronto and New York: Viking, 1992.
-
Deflem, Mathieu. Policing World
Society: Historical Foundations of International Police Cooperation. Oxford
and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
