INTERPOL Connecting Police for a Safer World

INTERPOL is the world’s largest international police organization, with 194 member countries. Our role is to enable police around the world to work together to make the world a safer place. Our high-tech infrastructure of technical and operational support helps meet the growing challenges of fighting crime in the 21st century. We work to ensure that police around the world have access to the tools and services necessary to do their jobs effectively. We provide targeted training, expert investigative support, relevant data and secure communications channels. This combined framework helps police on the ground understand crime trends, analyse information, conduct operations and, ultimately, arrest as many criminals as possible. At INTERPOL, we aim to facilitate international police cooperation even where diplomatic relations do not exist between particular countries. Action is taken within the limits of existing laws in different countries and in the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our Constitution prohibits ’any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character’. The General Secretariat is located in Lyon, France, and operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. INTERPOL also has seven regional offices across the world and a representative office at the United Nations in New York and at the European Union in Brussels. Each of our 194 member countries maintains a National Central Bureau staffed by its own highly trained law enforcement officials.