The National Central Bureau of INTERPOL in Tajikistan
Interpol is the world’s largest international police organization with 190 member countries. It facilitates international police cooperation, provides support and assistance to all organizations, authorities and services, the objective of which is to combat crime.
History of INTERPOL
The idea of establishing an International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO-Interpol) was rooted in the beginning of the last century. The First International Criminal Police Congress was held in Monaco in 1914. Lawyers and police officers from 14 countries have considered the issue on the possibility to create a unit for accounting of international criminal information and unification of criminals’ extradition proceedings.
The World War I has interrupted the started process of international consolidation of police forces. In 1923, the Second International Criminal Police Congress was held in Vienna, Austria, where the International Criminal Police Commission (ICPC) was founded. It has functioned until the beginning of the World War II. Hence, 1923 is considered to be a year of the ICPO-Interpol establishment, although before 1956 it was officially called as the International Criminal Police Commission.
In 1956, the Interpol has received its current name and existing Charter. In 1989, the Interpol headquarters (General Secretariat) has moved from Paris suburbs to Lyon, where it is still located.
In 1996, the UN General Assembly had approved the Interpol intergovernmental status as an observer at the General Assembly. In 1997, Interpol and the UN signed a Cooperation Agreement, which proves the high authority of Interpol.
Since 2000, the Secretary General of the Interpol is Ronald K. Noble, professor of law of the New York University.
Currently, the Interpol is a large international organization, the second after the UN on the size of staff and the largest organization of law enforcement agencies, which has 190 member countries. Each country determines an agency, which will be acting as a National Central Bureau (NCB) to ensure the collaboration with different organizations of the country, NCB member countries and with the General Secretariat of the Organization in the area of combating international crime.
The Soviet Union has become a member of the Interpol in 1990.
On 7 April 1990, the Council of the USSR Ministers had adopted a Resolution №338 “On joining the USSR the International Criminal Police Organization – Interpol.” On 27 September 1990, at the 59th session of the Interpol General Assembly (in Ottawa, Canada), the USSR was accepted as a member of the Interpol. The National Central Bureau of Interpol (NCB Interpol) has started its activity within the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) of the USSR starting from 1 January 1991.
After the collapse of the USSR, the NCB Interpol has become a legal successor of Interpol in Russia. The day of establishment of the Russian Interpol is considered to be 27 September 1990.
The NCB Interpol in Tajikistan was created in accordance with the mandate of the MIA of the Republic of Tajikistan for a membership to the International Criminal Police Organization. On 5 October 2004 Tajikistan was accepted as a member of Interpol and became 182nd member country of the Organization.
The role of Interpol
The Interpol system has been evolved for years. Its role is to ensure and develop international police cooperation, and its activity is aimed to protect and respect for human rights, to encourage the establishment of services, contributing to prevention and preclusion of crimes. The cooperation is based on the principles of respect for national sovereignty (which certainly, excludes the presence of “Interpol operational units,” authorized to conduct an international investigation), and non-interference in the affairs of political, military, religious and racial character. Another equally important principle is that cooperation should not be limited by language and geographic barriers and that all member countries equally, equitably must have an access to provided services. All state agencies responsible for criminal police prosecution, as well as regional and federal services have the opportunity to cooperate with their colleagues from other countries through Interpol.
It is mentioned in the Interpol Strategic Plan of Development (for the beginning of 21st century) that all areas of criminal activity should be covered by the worldwide system of police information exchange with a certain data formatting. For this purpose, the Interpol General Secretariat is equipped by modern communication system, which enables the NCBs around the world to contact each other by e-mail system. While using this equipment one can enter the database that contains information about the internationally wanted criminals, stolen vehicles and art works. It takes from several minutes to seconds to respond, i.e. the operational staff can get almost an immediate response to the request through the criminal information database. The system can be used to transfer photographs and finger prints at the identification process of a suspect. The information about international crimes and data on criminals, transferred through the telecommunication network is stored in numerous databases. They are located in the Interpol headquarter in Lyon, France. Databases that are included in the information system of Interpol, is a global repository of existing criminal information. All incoming information is automatically subject to cross-checks towards to already existing information in order to identify the matches and previously unknown connections.
The newest strategic system that is already being installed in Interpol is an automated identification system of finger prints. This system will be fully integrated with the Interpol computer telecommunication system, so the fingerprints could be transferred electronically.
The structure of Interpol
The supreme body of the Organization is the General Assembly composed of delegates appointed by each member country. It convenes annually to take the most important decisions related to work approaches, funding, cooperation and approval of activity programs. The Executive Board, which is gathered three times a year, observes the execution of decisions made by the General Assembly. A permanent administrative and executive body of the Organization is the General Secretariat located in Lyon, France.
The General Secretariat that is managed by the Secretary General performs a coordinating role. It consists of 4 departments: General Administration, Liaison and Criminal Information, Legal and Logistics Department.
The authorities of Liaison and Criminal Information Department are related to general crimes, terrorism, organized crime, money laundering, falsification and forgery, as well as drugs. Meanwhile, it is responsible for the centralization of information and deals with the cases in the area of international crimes. The current Department is responsible for preparation of international mapping and reporting on crime situation, as well as for arranging of meetings and workshops on different specialized topics. One of the actual tasks is the implementation of in-depth researches of key problems, which are associated with international crime, using operational analytical and strategic capabilities.
International police cooperation within each member country is carried out through NCB. It is a police service, authorized by the government of a relevant country to represent Interpol in the country and to represent the country itself in Interpol. NCB collects the information received from abroad and forwards it to relevant national and local law enforcement agencies. The incoming information from national and local law enforcement agencies is sent out to foreign law enforcement agencies.
The issues related to paperwork and its translation is within the NCB competence. Hence, there is no need to know the names of officials and staff in the member countries in order to send a request to the ICPO-Interpol member countries.
Peculiarities of Interpol activities
One of the main activities of the Organization proceeds from the fact that all NCBs, exchanging information regarding crimes and criminals must send a copy of the request to the General Secretariat. These requests are registered in the databases, which allow the special officers of the General Secretariat to analyse and systemize information concerning criminal activities. The results of the verifications are sent out to the NCBs.
In turn, the Interpol directs the system of international cards to the address of the NCB according to request or upon decision of the General Secretariat. The red angled cards are considered as notification for searching and are used by NCBs to inform other NCB colleagues that warrant should be issued for an individual’s arrest, and that an extradition is required. In case if the person will found, he/she will be arrested. The inquired NCB is notified immediately, and in turn, sends relevant official documents. The blue-angled cards are used to send a request for verification the location of witnesses or suspects, while green- angled cards are used to request on taking measures towards active criminals in several countries. The yellow-angled cards are used for search of missing persons and black-angled cards are used for identification of corpses. There are cards, which describe stolen items and other documents and are disseminated with the description of new methods, used by the criminals in order to notify police organizations.
The General Secretariat sends the information concerning legal and technical problems on the request of NCB. The exchange of information is possible due to the telecommunication network of Interpol. Technical capabilities allow quickly exchange the information with a high level of protection. However, Interpol is not only limited to exchange of information. The ICPO-Interpol databases store cards of individuals and stolen items, as well as the information regarding committed crimes. By disseminating information via telecommunication station of the General Secretariat, the NCB Interpol can decide which elements will be entered into the databases, as well as can identify a country that will have an access to this information. Also, it is possible that a certain kind of information will be available for only one person per country that receives it, if this only person is aware of decoding system. The mentioned network can be used for dissemination of photographs and fingerprints, and a coding of different cases. Since 2002, the Interpol uses new global information system of telecommunication I-24/7, which allows expanding the application area of database and capabilities of transferring/receiving of requests. The NCB Interpol in Tajikistan was connected to this system on 1 January 2010.
Interpol in Europe
The criminals, especially professional ones, are getting more active in Europe. The statistics show that in all European countries a tendency of the number and degree of crimes related to theft, acts of violence, drug abuse, and crimes, committed by minors is growing. The participants of European regional congresses, organized by Interpol, note the growth of crimes and an indisputable influence of criminal groups, which are growing from year to year. Due to some geographic causes,Europeis becoming an illegal transit zone of drugs, where meanwhile, the use of drugs is increasing as well.
Taking into account the given situation,Europeis the place, where contact officers were appointed with the purpose of easing cooperation in the area of combating drugs. The current system of contact officers was spread into other regions as well.
Europehas always had a special position in the Interpol Organization, and continues to have an important role. Thus, 80 percent of the requests come from the European countries.
It is logical, that the General Secretariat founded the European Secretariat in 1986, which exclusively devotes itself to the current region and to specific problems. The current agency is entitled with a function of permanent secretariat of the European Regional Conference, where it researches the problems of crime.
In 1998, the European Secretariat received the liaison functions, so the European Secretariat became the European Liaison Bureau. The services, provided by the Bureau are related to legal and technical aspects of criminal cases in different European countries. The organization and establishment of police, cooperation schemes, methods, technology and materials are significantly varied from one country to another. The assistance to countries for their adaptation to general standards of police information during the investigation period is an important factor, especially for the new member countries of Interpol.
Brief background of the ICPO-Interpol
The milestones of the ICPO-Interpol
-1889 – Three European states: Austria, Belgium, and the Netherlands come to an agreement on fighting crime. This was the beginning of the current police cooperation.
- 1905 – During the meeting of criminalists’ union in Hamburg, a suggestion on establishing special services on countering international crime within the national police departments was addressed to the participants of the meeting;
-1910 – A suggestion comes from Buenos Ayres on creating global police union
-1914 – The First International Congress of Criminal Police was held inMonaco. Members from 14 countries had suggested the establishment of bureau on recording international judicial information on the adaptation of extradition procedures.
-1923 – The 2nd International Congress was held inVienna, where the International Commission of Criminal Police was established, and its Instructions were adopted.
-1946 – The Renaissance of the International Commission of Criminal Police after the World War II. The new Instructions are adopted and the new acronym “Interpol” is used for the first time.
-1956 – the new name “International Organization of Criminal Police – Interpol” is adopted.
-1984 – The new agreement withFranceconcerning the head-quarter became active. The General Assembly adopted two resolutions on international terrorism.
-1989 – after moving fromSt. Cloud(where it had been located since 1966), on November 27th, the new head-quarter opens officially inLyon.
The General Secretary of Interpol is Ronald Noble
He was appointed as Secretary of the Interpol by the Executive Committee of the Organization in July of 1999 and in November of 2000, on the 69th Meeting of the General Assembly, was approved for this position. He teaches law in the New York University of Law. His career involves activities in law enforcement agencies ofUSAand in the Treasury. From 1989 to 1996, he occupied the position of the Director of the Treasury Department, having the largest legal services, such as the Secret Service, the Customs Service, and etc., under his control.
The Interpol resources are composed of:
-96 percent of financial authorized contributions of member countries of the Organization
- an authorized contribution is determined mainly based the criminal situation of the country, on GNP, and on population
