Interpol
Interpol's main functions are to act as a global police communication system, to gather intelligence on activities of criminal international organizations and individuals, to provide its member states with several types of criminal databases and analytical services, and to give proactive support for police operations around the world.
The idea of founding an international police organization was initially conceived during the First International Criminal Police Congress, held in Monaco in 1914. Lawyers, magistrates, and police officers from 14 countries basically constituted the public present at the time. In that same year, World War I was initiated and the project was put aside until 1923 when the President of the Vienna Police, Dr. Johannes Schober, promoted the foundation of the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC), which was the embryo of the modern Interpol. ICPC central office was located in Vienna, Austria, and when Germany annexed Austria to its territories in 1942, the Nazis moved the organization to Berlin. In protest, the vast majority of ICPC member-countries broke with the organization. Consequently, the ICPC was practically extinct at the end of World War II in 1945.
The reorganization of ICPC started in 1946, under Belgian initiative, and the name Interpol was created as a telegraphic address. The new headquarters were located in Paris, France, with new countries progressively seeking membership. The United Nations first recognized Interpol as a consultant agency in 1949. In 1971 the UN recognized it as an inter-governmental police organization, five years after the modernization process that created a new statutory regulation, administrative structure, and a new name, International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO-Interpol).
In the following decades, Interpol incorporated new technologies and organized its General Secretariat in Lyon, France, and the respective Interpol National Central Bureaus (INCBs) in each member-country. A communication system, X.400, was developed in 1990 for electronic exchange of information among the several INCBs around the world and the General Secretariat. Among other resources, an Automatic Search Facility (ASF data bank) was created in 1998 and in 2002, a web-based data system (I–24/7) was developed to optimize the access of INCBs to all available criminal records and new inputs.
The creation and consolidation of the European Union, as well as the new security challenges posed by terrorism and other transnational criminal activities such as international kidnapping and pedophilia, human traffic for labor, and narco-trafficking, make evident the strategic importance of Interpol. For instance, as an inter-governmental criminal police with law enforcement powers, Interpol is positioned to facilitate and coordinate the implementation of coordinated police operations simultaneously in several countries.
The administrative structure of Interpol consists of: 1) the General Assembly, composed of delegates appointed by each of its 182 member-countries; 2) the Executive Committee, whose members are elected by the General Assembly to represent the four Interpol regions (Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Europe) in Interpol affairs and decision-making; 3) the General Secretariat, along with the technical and administrative staff. Each member country maintains an Interpol National Central Bureau (INCB) that provides services to local law enforcement and institutions and functions as a liaison between the member state and the rest of the organization. The Interpol Executive Committee and the General Assembly have independent authority to appoint expert advisors.