100 Years of INTERPOL

It is officially 100 years since the start of INTERPOL today. As the following chart shows, the international police network was founded in September 1923, originally under the name of the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), only to be renamed as the International Criminal Police Organization or INTERPOL more than 60 years later, in 1989. Germany, France, China and Spain were just some of the group’s 20 founding members, which has now expanded to an impressive 195 countries. The Federal States of Micronesia became the latest member to join, as recently as November 2021.

Perhaps one of the facets that INTERPOL is most well known for is its "Red Notice”. This is a call issued by INTERPOL at the request of a member country for law enforcement worldwide to find and arrest a fugitive who is wanted for serious crimes such as murder, rape, and fraud, with a view to their extradition. In 1947, the first ever ‘Red Notice’ was issued by the then ICPC, when an international alert was issued for a Russian man who had killed a police officer. According to INTERPOL, thousands of Red Notices are issued per year and sent to all member countries electronically via secure police channels. There are several other color coded notices too, including yellow, blue, black green and purple, which serve different functions, from seeking help in locating missing persons to warning of a serious and imminent threat to public safety. Red Notices have come under fire in recent years, however, for their vulnerability to exploitation by totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.

INTERPOL works across a number of key areas, from firearms trafficking to drug trafficking. For example, the latter goes by the name of Operation Lionfish, which kicked off in 2013, and is an international anti drugs collaboration, which saw 30 tonnes of cocaine, heroin and marijuana seized that year. Other operations include Operation Pangea, which targets the online sale of counterfeit and illicit medicines, Operation INFRA-RED, focused on combating human trafficking and child exploitation and Operation Sunbird, which is centered on environmental crimes such as illegal logging and wildlife trafficking.

Over the years, the network has grown its capacities in storing and sharing data. It has now expanded to include 19 different databases, the most recent of which were added in 2021: I-Familia and the ID-ART app. The first is a database shared with police units worldwide used to identify missing persons through DNA samples of their family members, while the second logs data on stolen works of art and is now available to users via an app.