Chapter 3 Interpol
The International Criminal Police Organization headquarters in Lyon, France is a massive grey cube-shaped glass building located on the banks of the Rhone River. It is close to Lyon's Golden Head Park, which is far from the city center and surrounded by trees, creating an elegant environment. The entire building is surrounded by a shallow pool of water, with high walls covered in flowers and iron railings that serve as surveillance barriers. The transparent spire at the top of the building is equipped with numerous antennas and cameras installed on each side. Each door inside the building has electronic locks controlled by personnel with photo-embedded ID cards, and every entry and exit is recorded on computer. Visitors must undergo security checks a day in advance, similar to airport passport control, before being escorted into the building by staff.
The International Criminal Police Organization was founded in 1923 as the International Criminal Police Commission, with headquarters in Vienna, Austria. During World War II, the organization moved to Berlin, Germany and came under Nazi control. After the war, the organization resumed normal operations, moving its headquarters to Paris, France. In 1956, it changed its name to the International Criminal Police Organization, abbreviated as Interpol. In 1989, the organization's headquarters moved to Lyon, France.
The organization structure of "Interpol" includes the General Assembly, Executive Committee, Secretariat and National Central Bureau. The General Assembly is its highest authority, composed of representatives from each member country; the Executive Committee is composed of 13 members elected by the General Assembly, responsible for supervising the implementation of the General Assembly's resolutions, preparing the agenda for the General Assembly, supervising the management of the Secretary-General and other matters; the Secretariat is composed of the Secretary-General and technical and administrative personnel of the organization, responsible for implementing the decisions of the General Assembly and Executive Committee, editing various publications, issuing wanted notices for fugitives and other matters; National Central Bureaus are permanent institutions of the organization in each country, mainly responsible for cooperation between national police forces and member countries of Interpol. As of September 2005, Interpol has 182 member countries. The headquarters of Interpol has a database archive with over 1.5 million records of international criminals and a laboratory for identifying counterfeit currency and other valuable securities. Its international notices are marked in red, green, blue and black to indicate the level of urgency and content. Interpol's email network system can process one million messages per year in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. Publications include "International Criminal Police Review" (10 issues per year) and "Counterfeit Currency and Stamps" (technical journal).
The purpose of the International Criminal Police Organization is to ensure and promote cooperation among its member countries' criminal police departments in preventing and combating crime. Its main tasks are to collect, review international crime data, study countermeasures against crime; be responsible for intelligence exchange between member states; collect various criminal cases and criminal fingerprints, photos, files; report important case clues, pursue and capture important criminals and extradite important criminals; compile relevant materials on criminal crimes, etc.
Interpol holds an annual General Assembly session for its members, and it also hosts various international or regional conferences. The organization daily maintains close relations with the National Central Bureaus of its member states, organizing International manhunts. "Red Notice" is a type of emergency rapid alert circulated by Interpol to all member states when it is of opinion that an individual constitutes an imminent threat to a person or property.
China joined Interpol in 1984 and established the National Central Bureau of Interpol China in the same year. In 1995, the 64th General Assembly of Interpol was held in Beijing. Over the years, China has maintained close cooperative relations with Interpol.
